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Question

How do you write the formula for zinc acetate?

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Solution

Zinc acetate is an ionic compound. The easiest way to learn to write such a formula is to learn to write the formula of the cation first, and then the formula for the anion, then crisscross their charges.

Explanation:
The bond that forms zinc acetate is ionic. Zinc forms 2+ cations, with the formula Zn2+ and acetate is a polyatomic anion with the formula CH3COO.

Since the compound needs to be neutral, the total positive charge must equal the total negative charge, so the formula for zinc acetate requires one Zn2+ and two C2H3O2 ions.

The formula is then Zn(C2H3O2)2.

The formula for the acetate ion is placed in parentheses with a subscript of 2, indicating that two acetate ions with a 1- charge are required to bond with one zinc ion with a 2+ charge.

Now the total positive charge is 2+ and the total negative charge is 2-, giving an overall charge of zero for the zinc acetate compound.

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