Sulphate

Sulphur is a widely used element on earth. It has a crucial role in chemistry as its quick reacting skills add it with many other things and make it important in chemistry. Sulphur combines with oxygen and becomes sulphate ion; sulphate ion is used in making many compounds including sulfuric acid which is used for commercial purposes. Sulphate ions get connected with many elements like barium, magnesium and sodium etc. The valency of sulphate ions makes it possible to connect with others. Sulphate ions have two negative ions which readily react with positive ions.

Sulphur is the element of p block in the periodic table. The atomic number of Sulphur is 16 that means it has 6 electrons in its outermost or valence shell. Sulphur is denoted by ‘S’. Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8. so, these both elements need two electrons to complete their particular octet and become stable. So, when 4 electrons of Sulphur react with four electrons of oxygen at a time by making S=O bonds and with the remaining two electrons of Sulphur, 2 electrons of oxygen make S-O bonds, the structure gets completed. Two negative ions occur to balance this reaction and thus sulphate ion formation takes place.

Sulphate ions have a tetrahedral shape. Valency of Sulphate ion is 2 as two negative ions are found after the formation of sulphate ions which get formed due to Sulphur and oxygen. With sulphate valency of 2, it reacts with positive ions very fast.

Sodium Sulphate- 

Sodium Sulphate is formed when 2 atoms of sodium react with a sulphate ion. We know that sulphate ions have two negative charges, so we need an ion which has two positive charges. Sodium has atomic number 11, which leaves just one electron in its outermost shell. Sodium abandons its one electron of its outermost shell and becomes the sodium ion which has one positive charge. So, we take two atoms of sodium and get two positive ions which easily make the new compound sodium sulphate. Formula of Sodium Sulphate : Na2SO4

Aluminium Sulphate Formula-

The aluminium sulphate formula becomes little different from sodium sulphate due to difference in ions. Aluminium is an element which has atomic number 13. If we write the electronic configuration of Aluminium, we find 3 electrons in its outermost shell. Aluminium abandons its 3 electrons and gains three positive charges and becomes an aluminium ion. Now, we have 3 positive ions and we know sulphate has 2 negative ions. To balance both of them, we take 3 sulphate ions which give us total 6 negative ions and 2 aluminium ions give us 6 positive charges, thus we balance both of them and make the aluminium sulphate ion. Formula for Aluminium Sulphate : Al2(SO4)3

Similarly, magnesium sulphate is a very simple combination as magnesium has two positive ions and sulphate has two negative ions. So, both of them easily make the magnesium sulphate. Sulphate ions also make other compounds like potassium sulphate and barium sulphate are also made by balancing the ions by taking different numbers of atoms as required. Formula for Magnesium Sulphate : Mg2SO4

Conclusion-

We see that Sulphur is a reactive element which is prevalent in nature. The formation of sulphate ions takes place when Sulphur reacts with oxygen. This combination makes the sulphate ion which has two negative charges on it. Elements which have positive ions on them readily react with sulphate ions to make different compounds like potassium sulphate, sodium sulphate, barium sulphate and many more. To make different compounds with sulphate, we balance the number of atoms of elements to make the positive and negative ions equal.