Charge number

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Charge number is the coefficient that, when multiplied by the elementary charge, gives the charge of an ion.

For example, the charge on a Chloride ion, Cl ⁻ , is , where q is the elementary charge. This means the charge number for the ion is − 1.

z is sometimes used as the symbol for the charge number. In that case, the charge of an ion could be written as zq.