Hypothetical chemical compound heat of formation ... can be used to determine whether a hypothetical compound is stable." However, "a negative formation enthalpy does not automatically imply the existence of a hypothetical compound." The method predicts that NaCl is stable but NeCl is not. It predicted XePtF based on the stability of OPtF. Hypothetical chemical compound A hypothetical chemical compound is a chemical compound that has been conceived of, but is not known to have been synthesized, observed, or isolated (identified or shown to exist). Some hypothetical compounds cannot form at all. Others might turn out to be highly unstable, decomposing, isomerizing, polymerizing,
Chemical nomenclature of technical terms used in chemistry. Similar compendia exist for biochemistry (the "White Book", in association with the IUBMB), analytical chemistry (the "Orange Book"), macromolecular chemistry (the "Purple Book") and clinical chemistry (the "Silver Book"). These "color books" are supplemented by shorter recommendations for specific circumstances that are published periodically in the journal "Pure and Applied Chemistry". The primary function of chemical nomenclature is to ensure that a spoken or written chemical name leaves no ambiguity concerning which chemical compound the name refers to: each chemical name should refer to a single substance. A less important aim is to ensure