{"id":258197,"date":"2025-07-18T02:52:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T02:52:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=258197"},"modified":"2025-07-18T02:52:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T02:52:55","slug":"which-statement-is-true-about-the-formal-charges-in-the-cyanide-ion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/18\/which-statement-is-true-about-the-formal-charges-in-the-cyanide-ion\/","title":{"rendered":"Which statement is true about the formal charges in the cyanide ion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Which statement is true about the formal charges in the cyanide ion (CN-)? Both carbon and nitrogen have zero formal charges. The carbon has a formal charge of -1. The nitrogen has a formal charge of +1. Both carbon and nitrogen have formal charges of +1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The correct answer is The carbon has a formal charge of -1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the explanation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cyanide ion (CN-)<\/strong> consists of a carbon atom bonded to a nitrogen atom with a single negative charge distributed across the entire ion. To determine the formal charge of each atom in cyanide, we use the following formula for calculating formal charge:Formal Charge=Valence electrons of atom\u2212(Nonbonding electrons+Bonding electrons2)\\text{Formal Charge} = \\text{Valence electrons of atom} – \\left( \\text{Nonbonding electrons} + \\frac{\\text{Bonding electrons}}{2} \\right)Formal Charge=Valence electrons of atom\u2212(Nonbonding electrons+2Bonding electrons\u200b)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Carbon (C):<\/strong>\n
      \n
    • Carbon is in group 14 of the periodic table, so it has 4 valence electrons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • In the cyanide ion, carbon has a single bond with nitrogen and is also carrying one lone pair of electrons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Since the carbon-nitrogen bond is a single bond, it has 2 electrons shared between the two atoms. The lone pair of carbon adds 2 nonbonding electrons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • So, the formal charge on carbon is calculated as follows: Formal\u00a0charge\u00a0of\u00a0C=4\u2212(2+22)=4\u22123=\u22121\\text{Formal charge of C} = 4 – (2 + \\frac{2}{2}) = 4 – 3 = -1Formal\u00a0charge\u00a0of\u00a0C=4\u2212(2+22\u200b)=4\u22123=\u22121 Thus, carbon has a formal charge of -1<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Nitrogen (N):<\/strong>\n
        \n
      • Nitrogen is in group 15, so it has 5 valence electrons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • In cyanide, nitrogen is bonded to carbon and also has one lone pair of electrons. Nitrogen is sharing 2 electrons with carbon in a single bond, and its lone pair contributes 2 nonbonding electrons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
      • The formal charge on nitrogen is calculated as: Formal\u00a0charge\u00a0of\u00a0N=5\u2212(2+22)=5\u22123=+1\\text{Formal charge of N} = 5 – (2 + \\frac{2}{2}) = 5 – 3 = +1Formal\u00a0charge\u00a0of\u00a0N=5\u2212(2+22\u200b)=5\u22123=+1 Therefore, nitrogen has a formal charge of +1<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

        In the cyanide ion, the negative charge is mainly located on the carbon atom, while nitrogen carries a positive formal charge. The total charge of the ion is -1, as indicated by the overall formal charges of the atoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

        Which statement is true about the formal charges in the cyanide ion (CN-)? Both carbon and nitrogen have zero formal charges. The carbon has a formal charge of -1. The nitrogen has a formal charge of +1. Both carbon and nitrogen have formal charges of +1. The Correct Answer and Explanation is: The correct answer […]<\/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-258197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258197","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=258197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}