Question

Draw the electron dot structure of Methane.

Answer 1

Lewis dot structure

G.N Lewis, an American chemist, introduced a simple notation to represent valence electrons in an atom. This notation is called Lewis symbol or electron dot structure.

• In methane one carbon and four hydrogen atoms are present.
• Atomic number of hydrogen is 1.
• Electronic configuration of hydrogen is 1.
• Hydrogen needs one more electron to attain stable duplet configuration.
• Atomic number of carbon is 6.
• Electronic configuration of carbon is 2,4.
• Carbon needs four electrons to attain stability.
• So Carbon shares its 4 electrons with four hydrogen atom .
• Hence methane molecule is formed.

Electron dot structure of Methane

$\mathrm{H}\underset{\mathrm{H}}{\overset{\mathrm{H}}{\underset{\underset{.}{.}}{\overset{\stackrel{.}{.}}{··\mathrm{C}··}}}}\mathrm{H}$