Is sulfuric acid cationic or anionic?

Answer 1

A sulfur ion is known as an anion, or a negatively charged ion.

Answer 2

Sulfate is an anion.

Anions are ions that are negatively charged (have more electrons than protons), whereas cations are positively charged (have more protons than electrons).

You can figure out whether an ion is an anion or a cation by drawing the molecular structure of the chemical, or by looking at the chemical formula of the ion.

In this particular case, you know that the chemical formula for sulfate is SO42-. The superscript at the top of the formula tells you that the overall charge for sulfate is negative (2-), so you can conclude that it is an anion.

You can also draw find the charge for sulfate by drawing a Lewis Dot Diagram (there is a tutorial for drawing Lewis Dot Structures in the 'related links' section). Drawing this molecule shows us that sulfate has two Oxygen molecules that have lone pairs (each with a 1- charge). Adding together these partial charges gives us the net charge for sulfate (2-). Since the net charge is negative, we can conclude that sulfate is an anion.

Source: Steven S. Zumdahl and Susan L. Zumdahl,Chemistry, 6th Edition, Houghton-Mifflin, 2003

Answer 3

Sulfuric acid is a strong acid composed of hydrogen ions (H+) and sulfate ions (SO4^2-). Since it donates hydrogen ions and forms negative sulfate ions, it is considered anionic.

Answer 4

cationic

Answer 5

anion