----- Original Message ----- From: Marshall Dudley <[email protected]> >snip< > > The table shows that oxygen has an electronegative value of 3.5. > > I think the confusion may come from the fact that oxygen wants to acquire 2 > electrons when it ionically binds to something (making it appear that the atom is > positive although since it has the same number of protons and electrons so it is > really neutral), but what is important is that when it bonds or succeeds in > acquiring the two electrons it wants, it has two more electrons than protons thus > making it negative. > Reactive oxygen, oxygen ions, are negatively charged. Oxygen because of its high electron affinity, as Marshall has stated, will not give up electrons and is not found as O+, except for perhaps oxygen fluoride. A great deal of energy is required to form O-- and these ions are not stable, and will readily oxidise (donate electrons) most other elements. The electronegativity of an element is the amount of energy required to remove an electron from the neutral atom. Some compounds of oxygen, find the shared electrons orbiting close to the oxygen atom end, forming a polar molecule having a negative end (oxygen) and a positive end (other). But this charge is relative to the fact that the compound as a whole is neutral, one end is more negative than the other.
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