The formal charge on carbon in the cyanide ion (CN-) is -1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To understand how this is determined, we need to follow the steps for calculating formal charges:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, the formal charge on carbon in the cyanide ion (CN-) is -1<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What is the formal charge of C in CN- ? The Correct Answer and Explanation is: The formal charge on carbon in the cyanide ion (CN-) is -1. To understand how this is determined, we need to follow the steps for calculating formal charges: Thus, the formal charge on carbon in the cyanide ion (CN-) […]<\/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-258201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258201","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=258201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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In the cyanide ion, there is a triple bond between carbon and nitrogen. This means there are 6 shared electrons between the two atoms. Carbon typically forms four bonds, and here it is bonded to nitrogen with a triple bond, which means it is sharing three pairs of electrons. The remaining 2 electrons belong to nitrogen, as the lone pair.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
The formula for calculating formal charge is: Formal\u00a0Charge=(Valence\u00a0Electrons)\u2212(Non-Bonding\u00a0Electrons)\u2212Bonding\u00a0Electrons2\\text{Formal Charge} = (\\text{Valence Electrons}) – (\\text{Non-Bonding Electrons}) – \\frac{\\text{Bonding Electrons}}{2}Formal\u00a0Charge=(Valence\u00a0Electrons)\u2212(Non-Bonding\u00a0Electrons)\u22122Bonding\u00a0Electrons\u200b For carbon<\/strong>:
Using the formula:<\/li><\/ul>Formal\u00a0Charge\u00a0of\u00a0C=4\u22120\u221262=4\u22123=+1\\text{Formal Charge of C} = 4 – 0 – \\frac{6}{2} = 4 – 3 = +1Formal\u00a0Charge\u00a0of\u00a0C=4\u22120\u221226\u200b=4\u22123=+1 However, we must subtract the extra electron from the cyanide ion (since it carries a negative charge), so the formal charge on carbon becomes -1<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/learnexams-banner6-896.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"