CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

Why does the formal charge on the central atom have to be as close to 0 as possible?

Having the resonance structure with formal charges closest to 0 (especially central atom) makes it the the structure with highest contribution. The f(c)=0 makes the molecule the most likely to react.

The structure will be more stable if the central atom has a formal charge of 0, which is why we always to give the central atom a formal charge of 0.

Formal charge is utilized in order to predict reactivity with the closer the charge being to 0, the more stable it becomes.

The center atom is the element with the lowest ionization energy so it would make sense for it to not have the negative charge. Since the atoms surrounding the center atom have higher ionization energy and electron affinity, they are more likely to carry the negative partial charge.

To make it more stable.

Any sort of charge on the central atom will cause the molecule to be less stable, meaning that it is not the best possible structure. For this reason, it is better to find another better structure that has the charge on one of the other atoms.

At what point can the instability reach a limit of explosion or some sort of effect? Is this too complicated of the question?

As the central atom's FC becomes zero, the more stable the entirety of the molecule becomes.

I believe that all of the charges on the atoms (not just the central atom) should be 0