These are the assigned electrons of the atom – the electrons that it owns. The bonding electrons, however, are shared with other atom(s), and therefore, we need to divide them by two to count them toward the atom. The nonbonding electrons belong to the atom as it does not share them with other atoms. (Again, we do not count the inner electrons.) When the atom is in a molecule, it is surrounded by two types of electrons: the bonding electrons and nonbonding electrons (if any). When the atom is by itself, the number of electrons associated with the is simply its number of valence electrons. To determine whether the atom in a molecule or an ion is going to be charged, we need to compare the number of valence electrons in an isolated atom with the number of electrons that are associated with the same atom in a Lewis structure. We know that it is only the valance electrons that participate in bonding and chemical reactions because the inner electrons are too tightly bound to the nucleus. So, it must be the number of electrons that causes the charge imbalance. Now, the number of protons does not change, otherwise, we’ll have a different element.
Any charge on an atom is a result of an imbalance between the number of the protons (positive charges) and the number of electrons (negative charges). Let’s understand where this charge is coming from. In the previous post, we talked about the covalent bond and mentioned that sometimes, depending on the number of bonds, the given atom might have either a positive or a negative charge.įor example, the oxygen in water has no charge, however, in the hydroxide ion, which is the most common species acting as a base, bears a negative charge:
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