Hobbies And Interests
Chemistry
Chloride and nitrate are very different in terms of their chemical or atomic composition. The chloride ion is made of a single chlorine atom that has picked up an extra electron and so is negatively charged. It has the chemical formula Cl-. The nitrate ion is more complex; it is a group of atoms. It is composed of a central nitrogen atom bonded to three oxygen atoms. This entire groups shares a single negative charge and hence has the formula NO3-.
Structure
The chloride ion is a simple bare atom, with an extra electron. The nitrate ion has a complicated molecular composition. The sole nitrogen is at the center of the ion, with the three oxygens bonded to it in a triangular shape. The nitrate ion exhibits a property that chemists call "resonance," which means that the negative charge, as well as the electrons that bond the atoms together, are dispersed throughout the ion. The nitrogen actually has a positive charge, while the three oxygens share two negative charges, resulting in an overall -1 charge to the ion.
Mass
Since an electron has very little mass compared to the protons and neutrons in an atom, the chloride and nitrate ions do not change appreciably in mass by having an extra electron. Their masses are equal to the sum of the atomic weights of their constituent atoms. The chloride ion mass is the weight of a chlorine atom, or 35.45 grams per mole, where a mole is 6.02 x 10^23 atoms. The mass of the nitrate ion is the sum of the atomic masses of nitrogen and three oxygen atoms, or 62 grams per mole.
Examples
Both chloride and nitrate ions are found very commonly in chemical compounds. In fact, both of these ions are part of strong acids. Chloride is found in hydrochloric acid, HCl, whereas nitrate is part of nitric acid, HNO3. Another common example of a chemical containing Cl- is table salt, or NaCl. Nitrate is found in ammonium nitrate, NH4NO3, which is used as a fertilizer, as well as potassium nitrate, KNO3, which is one of the main components of gunpowder.