What is the formal charge for NH3?

Answer 1

When calculating formal charges you must remember one thing, draw out the lewis structure. When you have completed drawing out this structure look at the bonds. A fancy trick my teacher taught me was to cut each bond in half. Now look at the atoms that you need to figure out. They're bonds should be cut in half. Now in N there are four hydrogens surrounding it and each is connected with a bond. If we cut the bonds those bonds should be one each. Now if we look at Nitrogen it should have four electrons surrounding it, presumed you cut the bonds in half. If you look at a Periodic Table it should tell you that N has a total of 5 valence electrons, this is incase you did not know this from before. We are missing an electron in the bonds, so the missing electron from N should tell us that the charge is positive, since we must add one bond to make N happy. For Cl it is the same thing.

Answer 2

There is no specific charge on the nitrogen atom as it is part of a polyatomic ion, NH4+. However, if you want to work through the advanced inorganic chemistry fun, nitrogen and hydrogen have electronegativity values of 3.04 and 2.20 respectively. If you work out the bond angles and remember that you are already one electron short of a happy molecule, you can figure out the dipole moment of the nitrogen atom.

Answer 3

The formal charge of NH3 is 0. Each hydrogen contributes +1, while nitrogen contributes -3, resulting in a total charge of 0 for the ammonia molecule.

Answer 4

Nothing, it is a neutral molecule.

Answer 5

The chloride ion has a charge of -1