Is the Oxidation State of Nitrate Really +5 or +4?

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SUMMARY

The oxidation state of nitrate (NO3-) is definitively +5, despite having four bonds to oxygen. This is because oxidation numbers are determined by the overall charge and electron distribution rather than merely the number of bonds. In the nitrate ion, the nitrogen atom forms one double bond, one dative bond, and one single bond with oxygen, resulting in a total of five effective bonds. This configuration leads to the nitrogen's oxidation state being +5, as confirmed by sources such as Chembuddy.

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Spirochete
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Why does nitrate (NO3-) have an oxidation state of +5? Doesn't it have 4 bonds to oxygen? Shouldn't that give it an oxidation state of +4?
 
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read this, http://http://www.chem.lsu.edu/lucid/allen/OxNumbers.htm"

Oxidation numbers are not determined by the number of bonds to the atom
 
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That link doesn't work for me and I am still wondering about this topic. Anybody else want to fill me in?
 
In NO3-, the negative charge is on the oxygen. in molecular form, it would have been nitric acid, HNO3. there is an N-O-H bond, a N=O bond and a N<=O bond (dative).

In NO3-, the N-O-H bond becomes N-O^-

it has 5 'bonds' to oxygen. (1 double bond, 1 dative double bond and 1 single bond with O-)
 
Spirochete-Are you referring to the oxidation state of the nitrogen atom?
 

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