What are anion and cation?

Answer 1

CATIONS are POSITIVELY charged ions, whereas ANIONS are NEGATIVELY charged!

Here's a trick: "That cool cat is giving off some real positive vibes..."

So you easily know "CATions" give off positive stuff. :)

Or, you could think of it like this; cats have metal claws, and CATions are PAWSitive, so metals form positive cations.

Answer 2

An anion is a negatively charged ion with too many electrons, and is attracted to the anode while doing electrolysis A cation is a positively charged ion with too little electrons, and is attracted to the cathode while doing electrolysis

When an atom loses one or more electrons, it then has more protons than electrons, and it becomes positively charged ion. Positively charged ion are called cations.

Anion are negatively charged ions.

Periodic Table consists of 8 groups.

group I II III & IV are positively charged atoms while V VI & VII are negatively charged.

so we can say that elements of group I, II, III & IV are cations and elements of group VI VII & VIII are anions

(group VIII is also known as group 0 because its valance shell is already complete and it does not have ability to loose or gain electrons so it does not form ions which tells us that the elements of this group are not included in neither cations, nor anions)

Answer 3

An anion is any negatively charged ion.
A cation is any positively charged ion.

Salt (NaCl) dissociates into Na+ Cl- with the Sodium (Na+) being the cation, and Cloride (Cl-) being the anion.

It doesn't have to be a single atom. The conjugate bases of acids tend to be anions, for example the Sulfate ion SO4(2-) Is an anion.

The ammonium ion (NH4+) is a cation.

Answer 4

Atoms form ions they they gain or lose electrons. Initially, atoms are electrically neutral since they have the same number of protons and electrons. Protons carry a relative charge of +1; electrons, -1. The magnitude of both charges are equal, its just about positive or negative charge. An anion is one that has gained electrons (thus there are more electrons than protons, it is no longer electrically neutral) and will thus have a negative charge. A cation ion is one that has lost electrons, and will thus have a positive charge.

Ions need not just be of one element, such as F- or Ca2+. SO4 2- and such are polyatomic ions.

Answer 5

Anions are negatively charged ions, while cations are positively charged ions