What is the Charge of CH3? And Why?

The Charge of CH3 is 1+.

But the question is how can you find the charge on CH3?

Well there are 2 methods by which you can find the charge of CH3.

Lets dive right into these methods one by one.

You can also refer to the below video from which you will learn to find charge of any ion.

Method 1: By looking at what it is bonded to

The charge of CH3 can be found out by looking at what it is bonded to.

So let’s take some examples of compounds that contain CH₃; like CH₃Cl, CH₃Br, etc.

Example 1: CH₃Cl
In CH₃Cl, the CH₃ is bonded to Chlorine (Cl).
You know that the ionic charge of Cl is 1-.
So you can easily say that the charge of CH₃ should be 1+, then only it will get canceled out.
Hence the charge of CH₃ in CH₃Cl is 1+.

Example 2: CH₃Br
In CH₃Br, the CH₃ is bonded to Bromine (Br).
And again, you know that the ionic charge of Br is 1-.
So here also you can easily say that the charge of CH₃ should be 1+, then only it will get canceled out.
Hence the charge of CH₃ in CH₃Br is 1+.

As seen from the above examples,
The charge of CH3 is 1+.

In this way, you can easily find the charge of CH3 by looking at what it is bonded to.

Method 2: By calculating the formal charge using lewis structure

In order to calculate the formal charge on CH3, you should know the Lewis dot structure of CH3.

Here is the lewis structure of CH3.

Now using the above lewis structure of CH3, you have to find the formal charge on each atom that is present in the CH3 molecule.

For calculating the formal charge, you need to remember this formula;

Formal charge = Valence electrons – Nonbonding electrons – (Bonding electrons)/2

You can see the bonding and nonbonding electrons of CH3 from the image given below.

So now let’s calculate the formal charge on each individual atom present in CH3.

Formal charge on Carbon atom:
Valence electrons = 4 (as it is in group 14 on periodic table) ^[1]
Nonbonding electrons = 0
Bonding electrons = 6

So according to the formula of formal charge, you will get;

Formal charge on Carbon = Valence electrons – Nonbonding electrons – (Bonding electrons)/2 = 4 – 0 – (6/2) = 1+

So the formal charge on carbon atom is 1+.

Formal charge on Hydrogen atom:
Valence electron = 1 (as it is in group 1 on periodic table) ^[2]
Nonbonding electrons = 0
Bonding electrons = 2

So according to the formula of formal charge, you will get;

Formal charge on Hydrogen = Valence electrons – Nonbonding electrons – (Bonding electrons)/2 = 1 – 0 – (2/2) = 0

So the formal charge on hydrogen atom is 0.

Now let’s put all these charges on the lewis dot structure of CH3.

So there is overall 1+ charge left on the entire molecule.

This indicates that the CH3 has 1+ charge.

I hope you have understood the above calculations of CH3. But for your tests, you don’t need to remember the entire calculations. You should just try to remember that CH3 has 1+ charge.

Check out some other related topics for your practice.

Related topics:
Charge of Rubidium (Rb)
Charge on CN (Cyanide ion)
Charge of Selenium (Se)
Charge of Vanadium (V)
Charge of Mercury (Hg)