I don’t understand what the document means. It says “multiple of electron charge” for units metal.
Oxygen has 8 electrons, so does it have a charge of 8?
You are mixing up two things. In many force fields atoms have “effective” charges instead of their nominal charge. Which these are depends on the molecule. E.g. atoms in an oxygen molecule would be neutral since the oxygen atom also has 8 protons.
What the statement means is that the effective charges are measured in multiples of electron charges. Thus an electron would have a charge of -1 and not e.g. −1.602176634×10−19 C.
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Thank you for your response.
Am I correct that an O2- ion, for example, has an effective charge of 2 because it is charged with 2 electrons?
That depends on the force field you are using.
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Thanks for your answer, it helped me understand.
Thank you.