What it metal cation, including charge, from the compound #CuCl_2#?

1 Answer
Mar 28, 2018

The #Cu^(2+)# ion

Explanation:

#CuCl_2# is an ionic compound composed of the metal cation #Cu^(2+)# and 2 #Cl^(_)# anions. The best way to identify the charge is to to use the Periodic table .

As transition metal charges can differ it is better to refer to something which is known- like the fact that Halogens (or group 17 elements) commonly form anions with -1 charge. In this case, we have to Chloride ions, and as we know that Chlorine is a halogen we can identify the corresponding charge. Hence we can conclude that the other ion must be 2+ in charge as the compound is overall uncharged.