How do you calculate formal charge of a compound?

1 Answer
anor277
May 21, 2016

See this older [answer.](https://socratic.org/questions/what-is-formal-charge-1?source=search)

Explanation:

A good species to practise on is the nitrate anion, #NO_3^-#, or nitric acid, #HNO_3#. Nitric acid is a NEUTRAL species; nitrate is anionic. Both species feature formal charge in their Lewis structrures. The neutral nitrogen oxides are also informative for this purpose (cf. #NO_2#).

Related questions
See all questions in Net Charge
Impact of this question
2487 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License