What Type of Electrical Charge Does An Electron Have?
- Electrons are full of energy and always on the move, so they always try to stay as far away from each other as possible. This is why there can be several shells within an atom. The shell closest to the nucleus is small, which is why it can hold only a small number of electrons. The further from the nucleus the shells are, the larger the shells get, allowing them to hold a larger number of electrons.
- Because electrons have a negative charge, other electrons that come near will be repelled. The same holds true for two positively charged protons. Like-charges will be repelled. However, if a positively charged proton comes along, it will be attracted to the electron. This occurs because the proton and electron hold opposite charges.
- Electrons can be involved in two types of bonding: covalent or ionic. In a covalent bond, electrons in the outer shell are shared. For example, the chemical formula for water is H2O. The hydrogen and oxygen are sharing electrons to create the water molecule. Covalent bonds can be structurally represented by drawing lines between the bonds. A single line is indicative of a bond between two atoms (involves a single pair of electrons), a double line indicates a double bond (involving two pairs of electrons) and a triple line means a triple bond.
- An ionic bond is formed when the outermost electrons in one atom are permanently transferred to another atom. According to Britannica, the atom that loses the electron or electrons becomes positively charged and is, therefore, called a cation. The atom that gains the electrons becomes negatively charged, and is thus called an anion. For example, the compound NaCl (sodium chloride) is held together by an ionic bond. The single electron in sodium's outermost shell is transferred to chlorine's outermost shell, which contains only seven electrons. Both are now stable -- they have eight electrons in their outermost shell. However, the sodium atom lost an electron, so it is now positively charged, while the chlorine gained one electron, and is now negatively charged. The positive and negative ions attract each other, forming an ionic bond.