What is the charge on $Co$ in $[Co(CN)_6]^(-3)$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2018-02-28T12:31:33

$+3$

We have the compound $[Co(CN)_6]^(3-)$ .

This compound is made of cobalt and cyanide.

A cyanide $(CN^-)$ ion has a charge of $-1$ . Since there are $6$ cyanide molecules in here, their total charge is $-6$ .

Let $x$ be the charge of cobalt $(Co)$ in this compound.

The total charge of the molecule is $-3$ , so we can setup an equation to find the charge of cobalt, i.e. find $x$ .

$x+(-6)=-3$

$x-6=-3$

$x=3$

So, the charge of cobalt in this compound is $+3$ .

What is the charge on CoCo in [Co(CN)_6]^(-3)[Co(CN)_6]^(-3)?