How to identify electrolyte
Answers
Electrolytes are salts or molecules that ionize completely in solution. As a result, electrolyte solutions readily conduct electricity. Nonelectrolytes do not dissociate into ions in solution; nonelectrolyte solutions do not, therefore, conduct electricity.
Answer:
This is not my field (as a paramedic, I needed to know when and how to administer electrolytes, but not how to build them from scratch), but the question is interesting to me so I did some research. I was unable to find or deduce any useful rule based on chemical formula alone.
Whether a substance can be an electrolyte depends on the strength of anionic-cationic bonds and the particular solvent employed. Electrolytes can be bases or acids, salts or gases, or even organic compounds. The functional components can be ions or charged groups. Many compounds form electrolytes in some solvents and not in others.
One can deduce the likelihood of whether certain simple compounds will have electrolytic potential by considering the valences of its components, but it does not look like one can deduce with certainty whether a compound will be an electrolyte (or what solute would make it so) based on simply viewing the formula.