Lecture 1 Example

[VGonzalez]

In Monday's lecture we did an example with a nitrate ion. Dr. Lavelle wrote how many valence electrons there were in Nitrogen and Oxygen and then he wrote -1 charge. Why did he write the -1 charge? Is that the value we have to calculate with the formal charge equation?

[Alyssa Wilson 2A]

I believe Dr. Lavelle wrote -1 since we know from the question that NO3^- has a negative charge, because it is an anion. Therefore we have to add one valence electron into the equation of our lewis structure. Hope this helps!

[Kailey Nichols 4B]

Yes, in a nitrate ion (NO₃^-), N has 5 valence electrons, O has 18 valence electrons (6 x 3 = 18), and because this is an anion with a -1 charge, Dr. Lavelle added another e^- for a total of 24 e^-. So the -1 charge was not due to the formal charge equation, but rather it was already given by NO₃^-.