Complete the statement.
Lithium chloride is ().
A: an elementary substance
B: a compound
You can tell whether lithium chloride is an elementary substance or a compound by counting the number of atomic symbols in its chemical formula. An atomic symbol consists of either one capital letter or a capital letter followed by one or two lowercase letters.
The chemical formula for lithium chloride, LiCl, contains two atomic symbols: Li for lithium and Cl for chlorine. So, the formula tells you that lithium chloride is composed of two chemical elements bonded together.
Since lithium chloride is composed of multiple chemical elements bonded together, lithium chloride is a compound.