Oxygen has an electronegativity of 3.5, and carbon has an electronegativity of 2.5. How is charge distributed on an oxygen atom when it bonds with a carbon atom? The oxygen atom has a slightly negative charge. The oxygen atom has a charge of 1- The oxygen atom has a charge of 1+. The oxygen atom has a slightly positive charge.
Chemistry · Middle School · Thu Feb 04 2021
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When an oxygen atom bonds with a carbon atom, the oxygen atom has a slightly negative charge. This is because oxygen has a higher electronegativity (3.5) compared to carbon (2.5). Electronegativity is a measure of the tendency of an atom to attract a bonding pair of electrons. Since oxygen is more electronegative than carbon, it will attract the shared electrons in the covalent bond more strongly than carbon will. This uneven distribution of electron density means that the oxygen atom will have a partial negative charge (often represented as δ−), and the carbon atom will have a partial positive charge (δ+).