About: Pauling's principle of electroneutrality

Pauling's principle of electroneutrality states that each atom in a stable substance has a charge close to zero. It was formulated by Linus Pauling in 1948 and later revised. The principle has been used to predict which of a set of molecular resonance structures would be the most significant, to explain the stability of inorganic complexes and to explain the existence of π-bonding in compounds and polyatomic anions containing silicon, phosphorus or sulfur bonded to oxygen; it is still invoked in the context of coordination complexes. However, modern computational techniques indicate many stable compounds have a greater charge distribution than the principle predicts (they contain bonds with greater ionic character).