What is the Charge on CO (Carbon monoxide)? And Why?

The Charge of CO (Carbon monoxide) is 0.

But the question is how can you say that the charge on CO (Carbon monoxide) is 0?

Well you can say this by calculating its formal charge.

So let’s calculate the formal charge of CO (Carbon monoxide).

If you are a visual learner like me, then here is a short two minute video for you.

Calculating the formal charge of CO using lewis structure

In order to calculate the formal charge on CO (Carbon monoxide), you should know the Lewis dot structure of CO (Carbon monoxide).

Here is the lewis structure of CO.

Now using the above lewis structure of CO, you have to find the formal charge on each atom that is present in the CO 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 CO from the image given below.

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

Formal charge on Carbon atom:
Valence electrons = 4 (as it is in group 14 on periodic table) ^[1]
Nonbonding electrons = 2
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 – 2 – (6/2) = 1-

So the formal charge on carbon atom is 1-.

Formal charge on Oxygen atom:
Valence electrons = 6 (as it is in group 16 on periodic table) ^[2]
Nonbonding electrons = 2
Bonding electrons = 6

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

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

So the formal charge on oxygen atom is 1+.

Now you can see that all the atoms of CO have 0 formal charge. 

This indicates that the overall CO (Carbon monoxide) molecule also has 0 charge and hence it is a neutral molecule.

I hope you have understood the above calculations for the formal charge of CO (Carbon monoxide). 

Check out some other related topics for your practice.

Related topics:
Charge of Barium (Ba)
Charge of Fluorine (F)
Charge of Lithium (Li)
Charge of Cobalt (Co)
Charge of Nickel (Ni)