How does a Sulfur -2 ion differ from a neutral Sulfur atom?

Answer 1

Elemental sulfur, or sulfur in a neutral element has 6 electrons associated with it, and is therefore neutral. #S^(2-)# ions has 8 electrons, and therefore bears a 2- minus charge.

Sulfur in thioether, #R-S-R#, or #H_2S#, has 2 lone pairs and an electron from each of the bonds. When it's charge is determined these #6e^-# are balanced by the nuclear charge. In these situations sulfur is neutral. For #HS^-# or #S^(2-)#, there are 7 and 8 electrons associated with the respective sulfur centres, and these bear formal charges of #-1#, and #-2#.

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Answer 2

Xavier Avery

A sulfur -2 ion has gained two electrons compared to a neutral sulfur atom, resulting in a net negative charge.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.