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In the case of a name of a person, the first letter is written in capital letters.

  • Should the first letter of name of a chemical compound or element be written in capital letters?
Todd Minehardt
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Another.Chemist
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2 Answers2

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The names of chemical compounds and elements should be capitalized if they appear at the beginning of a sentence or in a title - that is, they are treated just like any other common noun.

For example, a title:

Why I Don't Like Zinc

or a sentence:

Boron is my favorite element.

Within a sentence:

We used boron and zinc in the experiment.

Vinegar contains acetic acid.

The symbols for chemical elements are always capitalized, no matter what:

We combined $\ce{As}$ and $\ce{W}$ to make a new alloy.

Community
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Todd Minehardt
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    In the 1979 and 1993 IUPAC recommendations, example names were actually written with a capital initial letter. This was not necessarily wrong since most examples started on a new line. However, this practice has been abandoned in the 2013 recommendations in order to ensure that names of organic compounds are not considered as proper nouns. –  Jan 22 '17 at 21:40
  • Capitalising (some) words in a title is a matter of taste, not orthography. – Karl Jan 22 '17 at 22:28
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    @Karl That's like saying "Whether it's 'colour' or 'color' is a matter of taste, not spelling." Capitalization is literally orthography: the way things are written down. – David Richerby Jan 22 '17 at 23:55
  • @DavidRicherby Your point being? – Karl Jan 23 '17 at 12:13
  • @Karl My point being that your point is completely wrong. – David Richerby Jan 23 '17 at 12:15
  • @DavidRicherby I have no idea what your first post had to do with mine, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalization#Titles – Karl Jan 23 '17 at 17:02
  • @Karl You said that which words get capitalized in titles is not orthography. I am pointing out that this is incorrect: orthography is exactly the set of "rules" for how to write things down, including things like which letters get capitalized. – David Richerby Jan 23 '17 at 17:05
  • I'm sorry, but the diverse, incoherent and arbitrary "rules" by which some English speaking writers, editors, publishers uppercase first letters in titles, and others don't, is not exactly orthography. As opposed to rather widely recognised rulesets like "British English" or "American English" on general spelling. – Karl Jan 23 '17 at 17:18
  • Thank Todd Minehardt for your good answer, I just have a last complement question, What about substitutions on the nitrogen of an amide and similar cases of other types of substitutions? Should that atom be capitalized? – Another.Chemist Jan 23 '17 at 17:56
  • @Another.Chemist - Can you give a particular example? – Todd Minehardt Jan 23 '17 at 19:12
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    @ToddMinehardt i.e. glucosamine (N-acetyl)-6-sulfatase – Another.Chemist Jan 23 '17 at 19:30
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    "N" is an element symbol, always uppercase. – Karl Jan 23 '17 at 19:40
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One addition to Todd's correct answer is that of trade names. The canonical example of Teflon being capitalized, the name being property of DuPont. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytetrafluoroethylene

Although Teflon is not the chemical name, the distinction is added to avoid possible confusion.

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    And complicated cases, such as acetylsalicylic acid, which is "Aspirin" in countries such as Canada, where Beyer holds a trademark, and "aspirin" in countries such as the US and UK, where the trademark lapsed and it's now considered to be a nonsystematic name. – David Richerby Jan 23 '17 at 12:21