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Phosphate: why -3?
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Topic: Phosphate: why -3? (Read 3139 times)
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Jules18
Regular Member
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Phosphate: why -3?
«
on:
September 16, 2009, 07:29:31 PM »
The lewis diagram of a phosphate group has two -ve signs on the oxygens:
http://student.ccbcmd.edu/~gkaiser/biotutorials/dna/images/phosphate.jpg
So why do text books say the formula is PO
4
-3
?
Where is the other -ve coming from?
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Yggdrasil
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Physical Biochemist
Re: Phosphate: why -3?
«
Reply #1 on:
September 16, 2009, 08:27:51 PM »
The other singly bonded oxygen should have a -1 charge (note that in reality, the three negative charges on the phosphate ion are distributed equally among the four oxygen atoms because of resonance).
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Phosphate: why -3?