Both oxidation state and formal charge involve conventions for assigning valence electrons to bonded atoms in compounds, but clearly they are not the same. Describe several ways in which these concepts differ.

Oxidation state, also known as oxidation number, is a way of keeping track of electrons in an atom. It is a hypothetical charge that an atom would have if all bonds to atoms of a different element were completely ionic. For example, in the case of a molecule like H2O, the oxidation state of Oxygen is -2 while for Hydrogen it is +1.

Formal charge on the other hand refers to the charge an atom would have if all the atoms in the molecule had the same electronegativity. It does not necessarily reflect the actual charge of the atoms in a molecule, instead, it’s useful for predicting and rationalizing reactions. This is ascertained by using the formula Formal charge = Valence electrons - Non-bonding electrons - 1/2 Bonding electrons.

1. Oxidation states can be positive, negative or zero, while formal charges are only positive or negative.\n2. The sum of the oxidation overall states within a molecule gives the total charge of the molecule. The sum of the formal charges of all the atoms in a molecule gives the overall charge of the molecule as well.\n3. Oxidation state is a single atom property while formal charge considers the molecule as a whole.\n4. Oxidation state does not represent the real charge on the atom, it assumes that the shared electrons in a bond are held by the atom with a more electronegative atom, while formal charge represents the real charge on an atom in a molecule or a ion.\n5. Oxidation state tells us about the electron movement, while formal charge does not give any idea of this.