The net charge on a sulfide ion, #"S"^(2-)#, is #2-#. How does this ion obtain its charge?

Answer 1

A neutral sulfur atom gains #2# electrons.

An ion can only be formed when a neutral atom gains or loses electrons.

Since electrons carry a negative charge, gaining electrons will result in the formation of a negatively charged ion, or anion. Similarly, losing electrons will result in the formation of a positively charged ion, or cation.

In your case, the sulfide anion, #"S"^(2-)#, carries a #(2-)# negative charge, which can only mean that it gained electrons.

More specifically, it gained #2# electrons. A neutral sulfur atom has an atomic number equal to #16#, which means that it has #16# protons inside its nucleus and #16# electrons surrounding its nucleus.

For each electron gained, the ion's overall charge decreases by #1# unit, which further confirms the fact that the neutral sulfur atom gained #2# electrons to get the #(2-)# charge.

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Answer 2

Cameron Andrews

An electron is gained by a sulfide ion, (S^{2-}), in order to acquire its 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.