{"id":29295,"date":"2025-06-25T12:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-25T12:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/?p=29295"},"modified":"2025-06-25T12:09:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T12:09:10","slug":"phosphate-po4-polyatomic-ion-that-can-combine-with-any-cation-to-form-an-ionic-compound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/phosphate-po4-polyatomic-ion-that-can-combine-with-any-cation-to-form-an-ionic-compound\/","title":{"rendered":"Phosphate; PO4 polyatomic ion that can combine with any cation to form an ionic compound."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Phosphate; PO4 polyatomic ion that can combine with any cation to form an ionic compound. Identify all the formulas below that correctly represent phosphate compounds. Select one or more: Combined with magnesium: Mg3(PO4)2 Combined with iron(III): Fe3(PO4)2 Combined with iron(II): FePO4 Combined with lithium: Li3PO4 Combined with copper(V): Cu3(PO4)2 Combined with copper(II): CuPO4 Combined with magnesium: Mg3(PO4)2<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct formulas that represent phosphate compounds from the given options are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Fe\u2083(PO\u2084)\u2083<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Li\u2083PO\u2084<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cu\u2083PO\u2084<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mg\u2083(PO\u2084)\u2082<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s the explanation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Phosphate is a polyatomic ion with the formula PO\u2084\u00b3\u207b. In ionic compounds, it combines with positively charged cations. To form a neutral compound, the total positive and negative charges must balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Start with <strong>magnesium<\/strong>. Magnesium forms Mg\u00b2\u207a ions. To balance with PO\u2084\u00b3\u207b, we need 3 Mg\u00b2\u207a ions for every 2 PO\u2084\u00b3\u207b ions. This makes the formula <strong>Mg\u2083(PO\u2084)\u2082<\/strong>, which is correct. The option <strong>Mg\u2082(PO\u2084)\u2083<\/strong> is incorrect since it would not balance the charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For <strong>iron(III)<\/strong>, the ion is Fe\u00b3\u207a. To balance with PO\u2084\u00b3\u207b, which also has a 3- charge, a 1:1 ratio works. So <strong>FePO\u2084<\/strong> would seem correct by charge, but it actually misrepresents iron\u2019s oxidation state. FePO\u2084 is the formula for iron(III) phosphate only if iron is trivalent, which it is in this case. But <strong>Fe\u2083(PO\u2084)\u2083<\/strong> shows the correct stoichiometry and is definitively correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For <strong>lithium<\/strong>, the ion is Li\u207a. Three lithium ions are needed to balance one phosphate ion, giving <strong>Li\u2083PO\u2084<\/strong>. This is correct and appears twice in the options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For <strong>copper(I)<\/strong>, the ion is Cu\u207a. Just like lithium, three Cu\u207a ions are needed per PO\u2084\u00b3\u207b ion. So <strong>Cu\u2083PO\u2084<\/strong> is correct. The other copper option <strong>(Cu)\u2083PO\u2084<\/strong> is also correct in formula but redundant notation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In summary, the correct formulas are those where the total ionic charges balance out to form a neutral compound. That is the key principle guiding all ionic compound formation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Phosphate; PO4 polyatomic ion that can combine with any cation to form an ionic compound. Identify all the formulas below that correctly represent phosphate compounds. Select one or more: Combined with magnesium: Mg3(PO4)2 Combined with iron(III): Fe3(PO4)2 Combined with iron(II): FePO4 Combined with lithium: Li3PO4 Combined with copper(V): Cu3(PO4)2 Combined with copper(II): CuPO4 Combined with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quiz-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37058,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29295\/revisions\/37058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gaviki.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}