How do you write the formula of an ionic compound?
1 Answer
What you want to do is make the compound neutral.
Let's take the following example:
We need to balance the charges, the easiest way to balance this charge is by looking at the overall charge of the ions involved. The
If you're asked to balance an ionic compound such as Iron(III) Hydroxide, write down the formula. We know that Fe (Iron) has a
In order to balance this, we need to add brackets around the hydroxide ion to give:
This balances the charges and, thus, an accurate ionic formula has been given.