In chemistry, a
vanadate is a compound containing an oxoanion of
vanadium generally in its highest
oxidation state of +5. The simplest vanadate ion is the tetrahedral, orthovanadate, VO
43- anion, which is present in e.g.
sodium orthovanadate and in solutions of
V2O5 in strong base (
pH > 13 ). Conventionally this ion is represented with a single double bond, however this is a
resonance form as the ion is a regular tetrahedron with four equivalent oxygen atoms.