Question

Draw a Lewis dot structure for the following covalent bond formation

1. Oxygen
2. Methane

Answer 1

Explanation of Lewis dot structure

• G.N Lewis introduced simple notations to represent the outer electrons in an atom.
• These notations are called Lewis symbols
• Dots are used to represent outer electrons in an atom
• The number of dots around the symbol represent the number of valence electrons.

Oxygen

• Oxygen has electronic configuration 2,6
• The outermost shell contains 6 electrons
• It is represented by placing 6 dots around the oxygen atom

$\ddot{:\mathrm{O}:}+\ddot{:\mathrm{O}:}\to \underset{..}{\overset{..}{\mathrm{O}}}\overline{)::}\underset{..}{\overset{..}{\mathrm{O}}}$

Methane

• Carbon has electronic configuration 2,4
• The outermost shell contains 4 electrons
• It is represented by placing 4 dots around the Carbon atom
• Electronic configuration of hydrogen is 1
• So one dot is denoted around the hydrogen atom

$$\begin{gathered} ·\underset{·}{\overset{·}{\mathrm{C}}}·+4\mathrm{H}·\to \mathrm{H} \\ \mathrm{H}\overline{)··\underset{\underset{·}{·}}{\overset{\stackrel{·}{·}}{\mathrm{C}}}··}\mathrm{H} \\ \mathrm{H} \end{gathered}$$