What is the Charge on HBr? And Why?

Charge on HBr

The Charge of HBr is 0.

But the question is how can you say that the charge on HBr (hydrogen bromide) is 0?

Well you can say this by calculating its formal charge.

So let’s calculate the formal charge of HBr (hydrogen bromide).

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

Calculating the formal charge of HBr using lewis structure

In order to calculate the formal charge on HBr (hydrogen bromide), you should know the Lewis dot structure of HBr (hydrogen bromide).

Here is the lewis structure of HBr.

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

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

Formal charge on Hydrogen atom:
Valence electron = 1 (as it is in group 1 on periodic table) [1]
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.

Formal charge on Bromine atom:
Valence electrons = 7 (as it is in group 17 on periodic table) [2]
Nonbonding electrons = 6
Bonding electrons = 2

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

Formal charge on Bromine = Valence electrons – Nonbonding electrons – (Bonding electrons)/2 = 7 – 6 – (2/2) = 0

So the formal charge on bromine atom is 0.

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

This indicates that the overall HBr (hydrogen bromide) 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 HBr (hydrogen bromide). 

Check out some other related topics for your practice.

Related topics:
Charge on POCl3
Charge on NO3 (Nitrate ion)
Charge on SO4 (Sulfate ion)
Charge of Iodine (I)
Charge on CO3 (Carbonate ion) 

Author

Jay is an educator and has helped more than 100,000 students in their studies by providing simple and easy explanations on different science-related topics. With a desire to make learning accessible for everyone, he founded Knords Learning, an online learning platform that provides students with easily understandable explanations.

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