{"id":235328,"date":"2025-06-15T05:23:57","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T05:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=235328"},"modified":"2025-06-15T05:23:59","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T05:23:59","slug":"what-is-the-formal-charge-on-the-sulfur-atom-in-so3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/15\/what-is-the-formal-charge-on-the-sulfur-atom-in-so3\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the formal charge on the sulfur atom in SO3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is the formal charge on the sulfur atom in SO3<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Correct Answer:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The formal charge on the sulfur atom in SO\u2083 (sulfur trioxide) is 0<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Explanation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To determine the formal charge on the sulfur atom in sulfur trioxide (SO\u2083), it is necessary to use the formal charge formula:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Formal Charge = (Valence electrons) – (Nonbonding electrons) – (Bonding electrons \u00f7 2)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sulfur, located in group 16 of the periodic table, has 6 valence electrons<\/strong>. In the SO\u2083 molecule, sulfur forms three double bonds<\/strong> with three oxygen atoms, resulting in six bonding pairs<\/strong> or 12 bonding electrons<\/strong>. Since all bonding electrons are shared, sulfur receives half of the bonding electrons, which is 6 electrons<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, sulfur in SO\u2083 has no lone pairs<\/strong> (nonbonding electrons). This is because all of its valence electrons are involved in bonding with oxygen atoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plugging into the formula:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Valence electrons of sulfur = 6<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Nonbonding electrons = 0<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Bonding electrons = 12 \u2192 12 \u00f7 2 = 6<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    Formal charge on sulfur = 6 – 0 – 6 = 0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Thus, the formal charge on the sulfur atom in SO\u2083 is zero<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sulfur can exceed the octet rule because it is in the third period of the periodic table, which allows access to d-orbitals. This makes it possible for sulfur to form more than four bonds. In SO\u2083, this expanded octet structure allows sulfur to form three double bonds, which distributes electron density evenly and minimizes formal charges on all atoms in the molecule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Each oxygen atom also ends up with a formal charge of zero in this structure. This arrangement is considered the most stable resonance form of SO\u2083. The formal charge calculation plays a crucial role in predicting and confirming the most stable Lewis structure of a molecule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What is the formal charge on the sulfur atom in SO3 The Correct Answer and Explanation is: Correct Answer: The formal charge on the sulfur atom in SO\u2083 (sulfur trioxide) is 0. Explanation To determine the formal charge on the sulfur atom in sulfur trioxide (SO\u2083), it is necessary to use the formal charge formula: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}