What does the bi stand for in bicarbonate, what is the purpose?

Sqw

There's only one carbon atom...

zyj

It just refers to the fact that it's a carbonate ion with an H+, essentially a proton, attached to it. I'm not sure where 'bi' comes from, but that's the reason why bicarbonate is also sometimes called hydrogen carbonate.

uby

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem99492.htm

Jadaav

I think it's a compound consisting of 2 carbon atoms. Yep, they are the same Carbon - 12 atoms.

I usually use this which helps me a lot :

Mono - stands for one ( sometimes not mentioned like in maths ;) )
bi - stands for two
di - stands for two
tri - stands for three

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi-

Make sure you read it :)

tiny-tim

Hi Sqw! Welcome to PF!

I think it predates the modern understanding of molecules, and was because a bicarbonate contains twice as much carbon (ie it produced twice as much CO₂) as the carbonate of the same metal.

eg NaHCO₃ contains twice as much C per Na as does Na₂CO₃ …

since the latter is obviously a carbonate, the former must be a bicarbonate!