delta + or -

[Tiffanny_Carranza_2D]

how do we know when something is delta + or -

at the end of lecture today, professor did H-o-H and he said O was delta -


how did he know?

thank you

[Sarah_Hoffman_2H]

Because oxygen is more electronegative, the electrons in the molecule are slightly drawn towards the atom, making the O slightly negative. This draws electrons away from the H atom make that end slightly positive.

[Lisa Seidl 3H]

An element will have a delta + charge if it has less valence electrons in a molecule than it should according to the periodic table. Since there're fewer electrons there is a positive charge. The opposite is also true where if there are more electrons in the molecule than listed on the periodic table, there will be a partial negative charge since there is more negative energy from an abundance of electrons.

Hope this helps!

[Lily Mohtashami]

We know that Oxygen is delta negative because it has a greater affinity for electrons and also a greater ionization energy which means that oxygen is also more electronegative. Oxygen will then attract more electrons which will make its overall charge more negative.

Hope this helps!

[Sam_Marasigan_3D]

Delta positive donates electrons and delta negative accepts electrons.

[Alara Aygen 3K]

If the atom pulls the electrons it is delta negative and if the electrons are moving away from an atom it is delta positive

[Eileen Quach Dis 2A]

I believe oxygen has a more negative charge because it's more electronegative than hydrogen. Oxygen is closer towards the right side of the periodic table than hydrogen, so that means an oxygen atom is smaller in size than a hydrogen atom, so it'll cling to electrons more tightly.

[Elizabeth Kaplan 3I]

Hi! We know that oxygen is delta negative because it has a higher electron affinity and electronegativity than hydrogen, meaning that it will attract, or pull more electrons to itself. This results in it being delta negative since the oxygen region has more electrons than the hydrogen region.

[Faith Lee 2L]

To add on to everyone's informative posts:

Something Dr. Lavelle mentioned in his lecture today was this relationship: Increasing difference in electronegativity → Increasing difference in charge (delta- and delta+) → Increasing ionic character of the covalent bond.

Because O has a greater electronegativity than H (electronegativity increases across a period), the electrons within a water molecule will be unequally distributed between H and O. As O is more electronegative, it will pull the shared electrons closer to itself, resulting in a delta- charge. Knowing this relationship between electronegativity and charge will be a concept that we build upon when considering ionic characters of bonds :)

[Ximeng Guo 2K]

unequally shared of electrons. The atom with greater electronegativity, like O in H2O, will attract the shared electrons towards it and become delta -. Since the shared electrons are closer to O, H will become less negative and thus delta +.

[Kimiya Aframian IB]

how do we know when something is delta + or -

at the end of lecture today, professor did H-o-H and he said O was delta -


how did he know?

thank you

Hi! We know that O is delta negative because it has a higher electronegativity than H does, so it will pull the electrons towards it, therefore giving it a more negative charge. It is important to remember that he was describing how covalent bonds have ionic characteristics, with the partial negative charge on the O being just that.
Hope this helps!

[Inderpal Singh 2L]

You would base it off the one that has the higher electronegativity! Also, remember that induced dipole moments can cause compounds such as N2 to have one nitrogen slightly more electronegative than the other.

[EnricoArambulo3H]

When we draw a Lewis structure that consists of different atoms, one atom will be more electronegative than the other. The more electronegative atom pulls the electrons toward it, causing that atom to be partially negative (delta -). Likewise, since the partially negative atom pulls the electrons toward it, the other atom will become partially positive. Hope this helped!