Formal Charge

[Eryn Hong 2C]

For the formal charge of PCl5, when calculating the formal charge of Clm wouldn't the V be 35, not 7 since we do 7 electrons times 5. Also, for elements with a formal charge of something other than 0, will doing this determine which atom has the charge?

[Hailey Nguyen 2B]

Hello! When calculating formal charge, you are focusing on only one atom at a time. So, because each Cl atom has only 7 valence electrons, we would say that V = 7, even though there are 35 total valence electrons when looking at all of the Cl atoms in the molecule. And yes, the formal charges will determine which atom has the charge. Hope this helps!