What is the Charge on NO? And Why?

The Charge of NO is 0.

But the question is how can you say that the charge on NO is 0?

Well you can say this by calculating its formal charge.

So let’s calculate the formal charge of NO.

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

Calculating the formal charge of NO using lewis structure

In order to calculate the formal charge on NO, you should know the Lewis dot structure of NO.

Here is the lewis structure of NO.

Now using the above lewis structure of NO, you have to find the formal charge on each atom that is present in the NO 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 NO from the image given below.

So now let’s calculate the formal charge on each individual atom present in NO.

Formal charge on Nitrogen atom:
Valence electrons = 5 (as it is in group 15 on periodic table) ^[1]
Nonbonding electrons = 3
Bonding electrons = 4

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

Formal charge on Nitrogen = Valence electrons – Nonbonding electrons – (Bonding electrons)/2 = 5 – 3 – (4/2) = 0

So the formal charge on nitrogen atom is 0.

Formal charge on Oxygen atom:
Valence electrons = 6 (as it is in group 16 on periodic table) ^[2]
Nonbonding electrons = 4
Bonding electrons = 4

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

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

So the formal charge on oxygen atom is 0.

Now you can see that all the atoms of NO have 0 formal charge. 

This indicates that the overall NO 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 NO. 

Check out some other related topics for your practice.

Related topics:
Charge of Xenon (Xe)
Charge of Bismuth (Bi)
Charge on H2O2
Charge of Indium (In)
Charge on ClO (Hypochlorite ion)