Sunday, May 15, 2011

Taking Representing Compounds in Diagrams to a Whole. New. Level. ELECTRON DOT AND LEWIS DIAGRAMS

Helloooo readers.


It is now time to take the next step in your relationship with compounds and represent them in what is called "Electron Dot and Lewis" Diagrams. YESS!! -insert confetti-


Now you must be asking how would you ever represent them in that way? Well I will start off by explaining exactly what a Lewis Diagram is.


A Lewis Dot Diagram is a diagram that shows the bonding between atoms of a molecule and the lone valence pairs in the molecule.

  • The symbol of the element is in the center, and electrons are represented by dots surrounding it
  • In total, there are 4 orbitals surrounding the element, each holding a maximum of 2 electrons
  • 8 electrons represents a "closed shell" or "noble gas" configuration
Example Time!!!

Let's show the Lewis Diagram of Chlorine. 
Chlorine has 7 valence electrons, therefore in the Lewis Diagram, there are 3 full orbitals and 1 half full orbital

These are the Lewis Diagrams for part of the Periodic Table

Now let's do an example of a Lewis Dot Diagram for a compound

NF3
-In order to complete it's outer shell to make it contain 8 valence electrons, atoms gain, lose, or share electrons
-Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Fluorine always follow this rule
  • In this case, Nitrogen needed 3 electrons, and fluorine only needs 1 electron, therefore, nitrogen shares 3 bonds with 3 fluorines

Now, this is the Structural form of NF3

AWESOME GUYS. : D

This is a video to help you further understand the Lewis Dot Diagrams:





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