Formal Charges [ENDORSED]

[Anika Scott 3A]

Can someone explain to me the significance of formal charges? What is their purpose and how important is it to include them in a lewis structure?

[Lucas Koch 1I]

Formal charges are the charges of individual atoms in a molecule or polyatomic ion. They are important because an atom is most stable when its formal charge is equal to 0 and the Lewis structure found in nature will always have formal charges closest to 0. To use the SO4 2- example professor Lavelle used in class, we could draw SO4 2- with only one double bond, but it would cause more atoms to have a non-zero formal charge than if it had two double bonds, so the version will two double bonds will be more stable and the version found in nature. If you didn't know formal charges and that they should be as close to 0 as possible, you would draw a wrong ion.

[Mia Yamada 1J]

Hi Anika!

The formal charge on an atom is important in terms of predicting its reactivity. The purpose of the formal charge is to indicate the number of electrons that are linked with the atom in comparison to the neutral atom, helping us identify the lowest-energy Lewis structure.

[Triston Dinh 1D]

Formal charges are the electric charges of an atom in a molecule and they are significant because a molecule will be more electrostatically stable if its atoms have formal charges are 0; this indicates that the electrons are shared equally.

[Bobak Pourrahimi 2L]

Formal charges are the varying degrees of charges that are present in bonding atoms. They are important in lewis structures because the ideal lewis structure has the most electrostatically neutral atoms.