How do I determine the charge of the iron ion in FeCl3?

Question

Can you please help me determine the charge of the iron ion that exists in FeCl3? HOW to do it would be great.

Answer 1

Since chloride is an halogen, it has a charge of -1.
Because a molecule always have a charge of zero, the iron must be a positive charge.
There are three Cl, for a total of -3, and only one Fe, that has to have the whole +3 all to itself to balance out the -3 of the 3 Cl.

Answer 2

Use the "kriss-cross method". Just kris-cross the subscripts of each element, and add the proper charge in front of the numbers. Remember, FeCl3 is saying: Fe1Cl3, so just switch and put on the top the 1 and the 3. And then add the + or - charge sign. Iron is always positive, as are all metals (except perhaps hydrides), and chlorine is always -1, as are all of the Group 7 (halogens) elements.

Answer 3

oxidation rules: O (as part of a compoud) is ALWAYS -2, unless as a peroxide, it is -1 H (as part of a compound) is ALWAYS +1 all pure elements are 0 (including O2 and H2) all ionic elements have an oxidation number equal to their charge (e.g. K+ has oxidation no. +1 etc.) all mixtures/compounds must totally =0 (i.e. all the oxidation numbers of the elements/ions in the compound must add up to zero) so your question: Cl is -1 because its ionic charge is -1. therefore Fe would be +3. (to make the compounds oxidation state =0, because there are 3 lots of Cl-1 which = -3) makes sure you ALWAYS put either '+' or '-' with an oxidation number. anything else will not be accepted.

Answer 4

For any ionic compound, you need to know the charges that certain atoms possess. For chlorine and all other halogens, the charge is always -1.

So, we have two things that we definitely know:

1) EACH Cl has a charge of -1.
2) The net charge of FeCl3 is 0 (since it has no superscript).

So...

NET CHARGE = (charge of atom #1)(number of that atom) + (charge of atom #2)(number of atom #2) + ...

And for FeCl3...

0 = (charge of Fe)(1 atom) + (-1)(3)

** charge of Fe = +3. **



You can see that the net charge of all three chlorines alone give -3. These chlorines and the Fe3+ give a net charge of 0 for the entire molecule.

You can check your work by realizing that Fe3+ only has two charge forms: Fe3+, and Fe2+.

Answer 5

If you imagine a small 1 as the subscript for Fe then you can criss-cross the subscripts and make them superscripts and those will be the charges
So you have Fe1Cl3
and you criss-cross the charges to get Fe3+ and Cl-1
so the charge on the iron ion is +3

Answer 6

+3
Since each Cl is -1 and there are 3 Cl needed to make the whole molecule neutral then the Fe must have a charge of +3 because:
-1(3) + 3 = 0

Answer 7

charge of Fe in Fecl3 is 3.
iron has either 2 as valancy or 3. in this case it bonds with three chlorine molecules. therefore its valency and charge is three.