charges on a compound

[Giovanni Anguiano-Gutierrez 3L]

How do you find the charge of the metal in a coordination sphere when there's a -2 charge? For example, [Co(CN)^5(OH^2)]^-2

[Gwen Casillan 3E]

So you’d find the charge on the cation by calculating the charge of the anion and figuring out what the charge should be on the cation to get the total charge of the ligand. In this case the total charge is 2-, and CN has a -1 charge (and there are 5 CN- anions, adding up to a -5 charge). Therefore, the charge of cobalt should be +3 to get the total -2 charge. Water is neutral so it doesn’t contribute charge.

[cassidysong 1K]

You'd simply add the charge of the ions together and then make it so that the charge of the metal ion plus the charge of the ions together equal -2.