Question

Differentiate between cation and anion.

Answer 1

Cation:

• If an atom has fewer electrons than a neutral atom, then it gets positively charged and a positively charged ion is known as a cation.
• Mathematically after losing electrons, it has more protons than electrons in an atom called a cation or positive ion.

Example:

$$\begin{gathered} \mathrm{Na}\to {\mathrm{Na}}^{+}+{\mathrm{e}}^{-} \\ \mathrm{Mg}\to {\mathrm{Mg}}^{+2}+2{\mathrm{e}}^{-} \end{gathered}$$

Anion-:

• If an atom has more electrons than that of the neutral atom, then it gets negatively charged and a negatively charged ion is known as an anion.
• Mathematically after gaining electrons, it has fewer protons than electrons in an atom called an anion or negative ion.

Example:

$$\begin{gathered} \mathrm{Cl}+{\mathrm{e}}^{-}\to {\mathrm{Cl}}^{-} \\ \mathrm{O}+2{\mathrm{e}}^{-}\to {\mathrm{O}}^{-2} \end{gathered}$$

Hence, the cations are positively charged ions whereas the anions are negatively charged ions.