General chemistry: what does the 2 next to Zn mean? and does it affect the positioning of Zn on the periodic

Question

table. im guessing it means it lost 2 electrons, so how many does it have in its valence? how many bonds can it form?

Answer 1

The +2 indicates zinc's most common oxidation state (actually, the ONLY oxidation state that I know of).  It means that when zinc is ionized, it tends to lose two electrons and form +2 ions.

Counting the number of valence electrons that a transition metal has is a meaningless task.  Remember that transition metals can shift electrons around, so they don't have a fixed number of valence electrons.  Zinc only loses two electrons, but other transition metals can lose one or two or three and so on...it just depends on the conditions under which the metal is bonding.

I hope that helps.  Good luck!

Answer 2

Yes, the +2 means that the Zn has lost two electrons.  The number of valence electrons is the number that it can gain or lose.  Chemical bonds are formed by sharing of electrons between/among atoms/ions.  One chemical bond can be formed for every electron shared.