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Formal charges in ozone and the nitrate anion. In chemistry, a formal charge (F.C. or q*), in the covalent view of chemical bonding, is the hypothetical charge assigned to an atom in a molecule, assuming that electrons in all chemical bonds are shared equally between atoms, regardless of relative electronegativity.
As an example, summing bond orders in the ammonium cation yields −4 at the nitrogen of formal charge +1, with the two numbers adding to the oxidation state of −3: The sum of oxidation states in the ion equals its charge (as it equals zero for a neutral molecule). Also in anions, the formal (ionic) charges have to be considered when nonzero.
In the NO − 3 anion, the oxidation state of the central nitrogen atom is V (+5). This corresponds to the highest possible oxidation number of nitrogen. Nitrate is a potentially powerful oxidizer as evidenced by its explosive behaviour at high temperature when it is detonated in ammonium nitrate (NH 4 NO 3), or black powder, ignited by the shock wave of a primary explosive.
It has uses in determining possible electron re-configuration when referring to reaction mechanisms, and often results in the same sign as the partial charge of the atom, with exceptions. In general, the formal charge of an atom can be calculated using the following formula, assuming non-standard definitions for the markup used:
The formal oxidation state of the nitrogen atom in nitrite is +3. This means that it can be either oxidized to oxidation states +4 and +5, or reduced to oxidation states as low as −3. Standard reduction potentials for reactions directly involving nitrous acid are shown in the table below: [4]
A chemical charge can be found by using the periodic table. An element's placement on the periodic table indicates whether its chemical charge is negative or positive. Looking at the table, one can see that the positive charges are on the left side of the table and the negative charges are on the right side of the table.
The molecule SO 3 is trigonal planar.As predicted by VSEPR theory, its structure belongs to the D 3h point group.The sulfur atom has an oxidation state of +6 and may be assigned a formal charge value as low as 0 (if all three sulfur-oxygen bonds are assumed to be double bonds) or as high as +2 (if the Octet Rule is assumed). [7]
Many elements have a common valence related to their position in the periodic table, and nowadays this is rationalised by the octet rule. The Greek/Latin numeral prefixes (mono-/uni-, di-/bi-, tri-/ter-, and so on) are used to describe ions in the charge states 1, 2, 3, and so on, respectively.