Relationship Between Formal Charge and Partial Charge

What we learned:

• Formal charges are a book keeping tool that tells us if an atom has the number of valence electrons it wants
• Partial charges are the “real” charges that represent the movement of electron density in a molecule
• Formal charge effects partial charge by creating larger dipoles
  • Dipoles show the movement of electron density
  • Larger dipoles means more electron density is moving in a given direction
  • This can create larger partial charges than if there was no formal charge