What is the formal charge of the central atom in chlorate?

Answer 1

Chlorate is ClO3- a Lewis structure (its a resonance form) is shown below. The = in the "structure" reperesents a double bond) see wikipedia for a better picture.

-O-Cl(=O)2

The central atom the Cl started with 7 valence electrons as it is sharing 5 of them with the oxygen atoms leaving 2 not involved in bonding

the formula is V-N - B

wher V is the number of valence electrons ( in this case 7)

N is the number of valence electrons not involved in bonding ( in this case 2)

B is the number of covalent bonds (5- 1 single 2 double)

So the formal charge is zero.

Answer 2

The formal charge of the central chlorine atom in chlorate (ClO3-) is zero. This is because the chlorine atom has seven valence electrons and is bonded to three oxygen atoms, each contributing one electron to form covalent bonds, and is attached to a single negative charge.