Question 6 on the Homework for Week 9

[Sydney Rohan 3G]

On the homework, the question asks to:

Give the oxidation state of the metal species in the complex [Co(NH3)4Cl2]Cl .

In order to do this problem would you get find the oxidation state for each atom except for Co and set that to 0. Thus, (NH3)4 would 0 and Cl has an oxidation number of -1 so it would x-3+0= 0 so the oxidation number of Co, in this case, would be +3? Is this how you're supposed to solve the problem, or am I doing something wrong?

[Rachel Yu 3K]

Yes you are correct!

The overall compound is neutral so the sum of the individual oxidation states must be equal to 0.

In this problem, the three Cl's have oxidation states of -1 so the Co must have an oxidation state of +3 to balance them out.

[105605391]

This is how I solved my problem and it seems to look correct the work you are doing. I just find the charge of all the ligands and anions and make sure it matches the total charge of the molecule by assuring the transition metal cancels them out.

[Sam Forster 2J]

Yep! Thats exactly how I did it and it worked out perfectly fine. Only thing slightly different I did was separate the coordinate compound and the counter ion's charges when I was doing it but your way seems better!