![]() ![]() ![]() But we can be more specific than that - we can also state for each molecular ion that a formal charge is located specifically on the oxygen atom, rather than on the carbon or any of the hydrogen atoms.įiguring out the formal charge on different atoms of a molecule is a straightforward process - it’s simply a matter of adding up valence electrons.Ī unbound oxygen atom has 6 valence electrons. The molecular anion and cation have overall charges of -1 and +1, respectively. Methanol itself is a neutral molecule, but can lose a proton to become a molecular anion (CH 3O -), or gain a proton to become a molecular cation (CH 3OH 2 +). Consider the Lewis structure of methanol, CH 3OH (methanol is the so-called ‘wood alcohol’ that unscrupulous bootleggers sometimes sold during the prohibition days in the 1920's, often causing the people who drank it to go blind). Organic molecules can also have positive or negative charges associated with them. Copper, for example, can be found in both its neutral state (Cu 0, which is the metal), or in its Cu +2 state, as a component of an ionic compound like copper carbonate (CuCO 3), the green substance called 'patina' that forms on the surface of copper objects. You know that an ion is a molecule or atom that has an associated positive or negative charge. Now that you have had a chance to go back to your introductory chemistry textbook to review some basic information about atoms, orbitals, bonds, and molecules, let's direct our attention a little more closely to the idea of charged species. ![]()
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