The compound CuCl2 is also known as copper chloride. It contains the metallic copper ion and chloride, the chlorine ion. The copper ion has a positive charge of two, whereas the chlorine ion has a negative charge of one. Because the copper ion has a charge of positive two, copper chloride requires two chlorine ions in order to cancel out the net charge.
Copper ions typically occur in two different states. The first ion has a charge of positive one and is called the cuprous ion. The second ion has a charge of positive two and is called the cupric ion. The cupric ion, present in copper chloride, is the more stable of the two ions. It tends to have a blue color when dissolved in water.
