Formal Charge
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In chemistry, a formal charge (FC) is the charge assigned to an atom in a molecule,
Calculating Formal Charges
To calculate the formal charge of an atom
- Determine the number of valence electrons for the atom
- Count the number of electrons around the atom (lone pairs + half the bonding electrons)
- Then do a simple subtraction:
- (number of valence electrons)-(number of electrons surrounding atom) = Formal Charge
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