Silver Sulfate Charge

Silver sulfate is an ionic compound consisting of positively charged silver ions (Ag+) and negatively charged sulfate ions (SO4 2-).

The silver ion has a charge of +1 because it has one less electron than the neutral atom. This is because the neutral atom has an equal number of protons and electrons, but when an electron is removed, the resulting ion has one more proton than electron, giving it a positive charge.

On the other hand, the sulfate ion has a charge of -2 because it consists of one sulfur atom and four oxygen atoms, and the total number of electrons in the ion is such that the total negative charge on the ion is two times greater than the total positive charge from the protons.

When these two ions combine to form silver sulfate, the charges must balance out so that the compound is electrically neutral overall. This means that for every one silver ion (Ag+) with a charge of +1, there must be two sulfate ions (SO4 2-) with a combined charge of -4. Therefore, one formula unit of silver sulfate has the chemical formula Ag2SO4 and a net charge of zero.