Question

In which one of the following compounds of xenon, highest number of lone pair of electrons is present in xenon?

• A. $Xe{F}_6$
• B. $Xe{F}_4$
• C. $XeO{F}_4$
• D. $Xe{O}_3$
• E. $Xe{F}_2$

Answer 1

Answer: (E)

$Xe{F}_2$

$Xe$ has eight electrons in its outermost shell. It forms one sigma $\left(\sigma \right)$ bond with fluorine and one double bond $(1\sigma +1\pi )$ with oxygen.
Thus, number of bond pairs and lone pairs are

	Compound	Bond pairs (bp)	Lone pairs (lp)
$\left(a\right)$	$Xe{F}_6$	$6$	$1$
$\left(b\right)$	$Xe{F}_4$	$4$	$2$
$\left(c\right)$	$XeO{F}_4$	$2+4=6$	$1$
$\left(d\right)$	$Xe{O}_3$	$3\times 2=6$	$1$
$\left(e\right)$	$Xe{F}_2$	$2$	$3$

Hence, $\left(e\right)$ has maximum number of lone pairs of electrons.