Ions are atoms with a positive/negative charge.

A carbon atom, which has 6 protons, could have:

- 7 electrons, with a negative charge - therefore it’s an ion
- 5 electrons, with a positive charge - it’s an ion as well.

Positive ions are known as cations.

Negative ions are called anions.

Cations and anions can combine to form ionic compounds.

As an example, let’s take an alkali metal (group 1), potassium, which has 19
protons, and say it only has 18 electrons, making it a potassium cation.
K+1

Let’s also take a halogen (group 7), chlorine (Cl) and give it an extra electron,
making it a chloride anion.
Cl-1

Since one is an anion and the potassium is a cation, they attract and form a
compound called potassium chloride, or KCl, which is an ionic compound.
*when writing an ionic compound, the cation comes first - potassium in this
case.

Chlorine is rewritten as chloride to indicate it is an anion. Meanwhile,

potassium stays the same - the rewriting on chloride shows it is an ionic
compound, which indicates that the potassium is a cation.
Other examples:
- Nitride
- Oxide
- Sulfide
- Flouride
- Bromide

Ionic compounds are always neutral as well. This means that the magnitude of
the cation’s positive charge and anion’s negative charge is equal. The periodic
table gives us a way to predict this, the numbers at the top determine the
charge:
For example, the column in Group 2 always has a positive charge of +2 and the
column in group 17 has a negative charge of -1.

To test this out, let’s try to determine the constituent ions of magnesium
iodide.

Since iodide is in group 17 (-1), and magnesium is in group 2 (+2), there must
be 2 iodide ions, so the chemical formula is

MgI2
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The list of elements on the periodic table (in the variable charges column) can
form different cations, such as
- Cr2+ (written as chromous or chromium(II)) and Cr3+ (as
chromic/chromium(III))
- Fe2+ (ferrous or iron(II)) and Fe3+ (Ferric or iron(III))
These are called polyvalent cations.

An example problem is to write FeO.

The iron could be classified as iron(II) and iron (III), so we have to be careful!

Since oxygen is -2 anion, row 16, the iron is Fe2+/Ferrous.

So the wording is
Ferrous Oxide or Iron Oxide

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Mole - Avogadro’s number is a unit for a number of elements.

The mass of a number of atoms IN GRAMS is equal to the atom’s AMU, g/mol or
molar mass MULTIPLIED by a mole, 6.022 x 10^23

For example, hydrogen’s AMU/molar mass is 1.008

Therefore, 1.008 grams of hydrogen is equal to 6.022x10^23 atoms of
hydrogen.
A molar mass problem
Calculate the number of moles in a 1.52kg sample of glucose.

The molar mass of C6H12O6 (glucose) -

6x12.01 + 12x1.008 +6x16

72.06 + 12.096 + 96 = 180.156

1.52kg = 1520 g

Molar mass (amu, g/mol) x mole = [molar mass] in g

Can be written as:
Molar mass / grams = mole

1520/180.156 = 8.437 moles roughly = 5,080841049 x 10^24 atoms