Metal ions have what type of charge

The formula will therefore be MX 2. When something loses electrons we say that it has been oxidised. When something gains electrons, we say it has been reduced. So in ionic bonding, the metals are oxidised and the non-metals are reduced. Forming ions Ions are electrically charged particles formed when atoms lose or gain electrons. Positively charged sodium and aluminium ions. Chapter 3: Molecules, Compounds, and Chemical Equations. Chapter 4: Chemical Quantities and Aqueous Reactions. Chapter 5: Gases.

Chapter 6: Thermochemistry. Chapter 7: Electronic Structure of Atoms. Chapter 8: Periodic Properties of the Elements. Chapter 9: Chemical Bonding: Basic Concepts. Chapter Liquids, Solids, and Intermolecular Forces. Chapter Solutions and Colloids. Chapter Chemical Kinetics. Chapter Chemical Equilibrium. Chapter Acids and Bases.

Chapter Acid-base and Solubility Equilibria. Chapter Thermodynamics. Chapter Electrochemistry. Chapter Radioactivity and Nuclear Chemistry. Chapter Transition Metals and Coordination Complexes. Chapter Biochemistry. Full Table of Contents. This is a sample clip. Sign in or start your free trial.

JoVE Core Chemistry. Previous Video Next Video. Next Video 2. Embed Share. Atoms are neutral particles with equal numbers of protons and electrons. Jensen, William B. Schmid, Roland. Gillespie, Ronald J. Please enter your institutional email to check if you have access to this content.

Please create an account to get access. Forgot Password? Please enter your email address so we may send you a link to reset your password. To request a trial, please fill out the form below. A JoVE representative will be in touch with you shortly. You have already requested a trial and a JoVE representative will be in touch with you shortly. Naming an ion is straightforward. If the element has more than one possible charge, the value of the charge comes after the element name and before the word ion.

In print, we use roman numerals in parentheses to represent the charge on the ion, so these two iron ions would be represented as the iron II cation and the iron III cation, respectively.

For a monatomic anion, use the stem of the element name and append the suffix -ide to it, and then add ion. This is similar to how we named molecular compounds. Chemical formulas for ionic compounds are called ionic formulas. A proper ionic formula has a cation and an anion in it; an ionic compound is never formed between two cations only or two anions only. The key to writing proper ionic formulas is simple: the total positive charge must balance the total negative charge.

Because the charges on the ions are characteristic, sometimes we have to have more than one of a cation or an anion to balance the overall positive and negative charges.

It is conventional to use the lowest ratio of ions that are needed to balance the charges. Each ion has a single charge, one positive and one negative, so we need only one ion of each to balance the overall charge. When writing the ionic formula, we follow two additional conventions: 1 write the formula for the cation first and the formula for the anion next, but 2 do not write the charges on the ions.

The formula Na 2 Cl 2 also has balanced charges, but the convention is to use the lowest ratio of ions, which would be one of each. By convention, the formula is MgO.

The ionic compound NaCl is very common. To balance the charges with the lowest number of ions possible, we need to have two chloride ions to balance the charge on the one magnesium ion.

Rather than write the formula MgClCl, we combine the two chloride ions and write it with a 2 subscript: MgCl 2. What is the formula MgCl 2 telling us?

There are two chloride ions in the formula. Although chlorine as an element is a diatomic molecule, Cl 2 , elemental chlorine is not part of this ionic compound. The chlorine is in the form of a negatively charged ion , not the neutral element. Write the proper ionic formula for each of the two given ions. Write the proper ionic formulas for each of the two given ions.

Naming ionic compounds is simple: combine the name of the cation and the name of the anion, in both cases omitting the word ion. Do not use numerical prefixes if there is more than one ion necessary to balance the charges.

NaCl is sodium chloride, a combination of the name of the cation sodium and the anion chloride. MgO is magnesium oxide. MgCl 2 is magnesium chloride— not magnesium dichloride. In naming ionic compounds whose cations can have more than one possible charge, we must also include the charge, in parentheses and in roman numerals, as part of the name. Again, no numerical prefixes appear in the name.

The number of ions in the formula is dictated by the need to balance the positive and negative charges. How do you know whether a formula—and by extension, a name—is for a molecular compound or for an ionic compound? Molecular compounds form between nonmetals and nonmetals, while ionic compounds form between metals and nonmetals.

The periodic table Figure 3. There also exists a group of ions that contain more than one atom. These are called polyatomic ions. Only one of them, the ammonium ion, is a cation; the rest are anions. Most of them also contain oxygen atoms, so sometimes they are referred to as oxyanions.

Some of them, such as nitrate and nitrite, and sulfate and sulfite, have very similar formulas and names, so care must be taken to get the formulas and names correct. Note that the -ite polyatomic ion has one less oxygen atom in its formula than the -ate ion but with the same ionic charge.

The naming of ionic compounds that contain polyatomic ions follows the same rules as the naming for other ionic compounds: simply combine the name of the cation and the name of the anion. Do not use numerical prefixes in the name if there is more than one polyatomic ion; the only exception to this is if the name of the ion itself contains a numerical prefix, such as dichromate or triiodide.

Writing the formulas of ionic compounds has one important difference. If more than one polyatomic ion is needed to balance the overall charge in the formula, enclose the formula of the polyatomic ion in parentheses and write the proper numerical subscript to the right and outside the parentheses.