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What is the formal charge of the sulfur atom in the compound SO₂?

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To calculate the formal charge of the sulfur atom in SO, we need to follow these steps:1. Determine the number of valence electrons for sulfur. Sulfur is in group 16, so it has 6 valence electrons.2. Calculate the number of non-bonding electrons on the sulfur atom. In SO, sulfur forms two double bonds with two oxygen atoms, so it has no non-bonding electrons.3. Calculate the number of bonding electrons. Since there are two double bonds, there are 4 bonding electron pairs  each double bond has 2 electron pairs , which means there are 8 bonding electrons in total.4. Divide the number of bonding electrons by 2 to get the number of electron pairs. In this case, 8 bonding electrons divided by 2 equals 4 electron pairs.5. Subtract the number of non-bonding electrons and electron pairs from the number of valence electrons: 6  valence electrons  - 0  non-bonding electrons  - 4  electron pairs  = 2.The formal charge of the sulfur atom in SO is +2.
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