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If a body has more or fewer electrons than are required to balance the positive charge of the nuclei, then that object has a net electric charge. When there is an excess of electrons, the object is said to be negatively charged. When there are fewer electrons than the number of protons in nuclei, the object is said to be positively charged ...
In 1898, J. J. Thomson found that the positive charge of a hydrogen ion is equal to the negative charge of an electron, and these were then the smallest known charged particles. [22] Thomson later found that the positive charge in an atom is a positive multiple of an electron's negative charge. [23]
Electric charge is a conserved property: the net charge of an isolated system, the quantity of positive charge minus the amount of negative charge, cannot change. Electric charge is carried by subatomic particles. In ordinary matter, negative charge is carried by electrons, and positive charge is carried by the protons in the nuclei of atoms ...
An anion (−) (/ ˈ æ n ˌ aɪ. ən / ANN-eye-ən, from the Greek word ἄνω (ánō), meaning "up" [13]) is an ion with more electrons than protons, giving it a net negative charge (since electrons are negatively charged and protons are positively charged). [14]
It is one of the main types of bonding, along with covalent bonding and metallic bonding. Ions are atoms (or groups of atoms) with an electrostatic charge. Atoms that gain electrons make negatively charged ions (called anions). Atoms that lose electrons make positively charged ions (called cations).
Ionization (or ionisation specifically in Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand) is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged atom or molecule is called an ion.
Thomson refused to jump to the conclusion that the basic unit of positive charge has a mass equal to that of the hydrogen ion, arguing that scientists first had to know how many electrons an atom contains. [27] For all he could tell, a hydrogen ion might still contain a few electrons—perhaps two electrons and three units of positive charge.
Atoms that have gained electrons so they are negatively charged are called anions, atoms that have lost electrons so they are positively charged are called cations. [7] Cations and anions of the dissociated liquid also serve as charge carriers in melted ionic solids (see e.g. the Hall–Héroult process for an example of electrolysis of a ...