CHAPTER 7

COVALENT BONDING AND

ELECTRON-DOT STRUCTURES
Lecture # 26 (24-Jan-2019)

Chemistry by
John E. McMurry
Seventh Edition

Instructor:
Dr. Muhammad Ali Hashmi
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 Electron Dot Structures and the Octet Rule
■ Lewis came up with the idea of representing the
valence shell electrons of atoms and molecules in
an easy way. This representation is called the
electron-dot structures or Lewis structures.
■ An electron-dot structure represents an atom’s
valence electrons by dots and indicates by the
placement of the dots how the valence electrons
are distributed in a molecule.
■ The central idea is that when atoms form a bond
they share electrons to achieve a complete
valence shell or noble gas electron configuration.
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 Electron Dot Structure for an H2 Molecule
■ An electron-dot structure for an H2 molecule is
written showing a pair of dots between the
hydrogen atoms, indicating that the hydrogens
share the pair of electrons in a covalent bond.

■ By sharing two electrons in a covalent bond, each

hydrogen effectively has one electron pair and the
stable, 1s2 electron configuration of the noble gas
helium.

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 Electron Dot Structure for F2 Molecule
■ Six of the seven valence electrons in F atom are
already paired in three filled atomic orbitals and
thus are not shared in bonding.
■ Each F atom in the F2 molecule shares the seventh
unpaired electron and thus gains a noble-gas
configuration with eight valence-shell electrons and
thus obeys the octet rule.
■ The three pairs of nonbonding electrons on each
fluorine atom are called lone pairs, or nonbonding
pairs, and the shared electrons are called a
bonding pair.

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 Rules to Write Electron Dot Structures
■ As a general rule, a main-group atom shares as
many of its valence-shell electrons as possible,
either until it has no more to share or until it
reaches an octet configuration.
■ Group 3A elements, such as boron, have three
valence electrons and can therefore form three
electron-pair bonds in neutral molecules such as
borane, BH3.

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 Rules to Write Electron Dot Structures
■ Group 4A elements, such as carbon, have four
valence electrons and form four bonds, as in
methane, CH4. Carbon has four bond pairs here.

■ Group 5A elements, such as nitrogen, have five

valence electrons and form three bonds, as in
ammonia, NH3. The nitrogen atom in the resultant
molecule has three bonding pairs of electrons
and one lone pair.

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 Rules to Write Electron Dot Structures
■ Group 6A elements such as oxygen, have six
valence electrons and form two bonds, as in water,
H2O.The oxygen atom in H2O has two bonding pairs
of electrons and two lone pairs.

■ Group 7A elements (halogens), such as fluorine,

have seven valence electrons and form one bond,
as in hydrogen fluoride, HF. The fluorine atom in the
resultant molecule has one bonding pair of
electrons and three lone pairs

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 Electron Dot Structures of Multiple Bonds
■ The oxygen atoms in the O2 molecule, reaches
valence-shell octets by sharing two pairs, or four
electrons, in a double bond.

■ Nitrogen atoms in the N2 molecule share three

pairs, or six electrons, in a triple bond.

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 Coordinate Covalent Bonds
■ A shared bond can also form when one atom
donates both electrons (a lone pair) to another
atom that has a vacant valence orbital.
■ The ammonium ion (NH4+), for instance, forms
when the two lone pair electrons from the nitrogen
atom of ammonia, :NH3, bond to H+.
■ Such bonds are called coordinate covalent bonds.

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 Procedure for Drawing Electron-Dot Structures
■ Step 1. Find the total number of valence electrons
in the molecule or ion. Find the sum of the valence
electrons for all atoms and add one additional
electron for each negative charge in an anion, and
subtract one electron for each positive charge in a
cation.
■ Examples are given below:

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 Procedure for Drawing Electron-Dot Structures
■ Step 2. Decide what the connections are between
atoms, and draw lines to represent the bonds.
■ The central atom is typically the one with the lowest
electronegativity (except H).
■ Hydrogen and the halogens usually form only one
bond.
■ Octet Rule Exception: Elements in the third row and
lower often have an expanded octet, as they form
more bonds than predicted by the octet rule. e.g.
PCl5.

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 Procedure for Drawing Electron-Dot Structures
■ Octet Rule Exception. Elements in Group 3A, such
as B and Al, are frequently electron deficient,
meaning they are surrounded by less than eight
electrons.
■ If, for example, you were asked to predict the
connections in SF4 ,a good guess would be that
each fluorine forms one bond to sulfur, which
occurs as the central atom.

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 Procedure for Drawing Electron-Dot Structures
■ Step 3. Subtract the number of valence electrons
used for bonding from the total number calculated
in Step 1 to find the number that remain.
■ In SF4, 8 of the 34 total valence electrons are used
in covalent bonding, leaving 34-8=26.
■ Twenty-four of the 26 are assigned to the four
terminal fluorine atoms to reach an octet
configuration for each.

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 Procedure for Drawing Electron-Dot Structures
■ Step 4. If unassigned electrons remain after Step 3,
place them on the central atom. In SF4, 32 of the
34 electrons have been assigned, leaving the final
2 to be placed on the central S atom.
■ Sulfur is in the third row and can therefore expand
its octet using d orbitals.

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 Procedure for Drawing Electron-Dot Structures
■ Step 5. Form multiple bonds to fulfill an incomplete
octet on the central atom.
■ If no unassigned electrons remain after Step 3 but
the central atom does not yet have an octet, use
one or more lone pairs of electrons from a
neighboring atom to form a multiple bond (either
double or triple).
■ Oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur often form
multiple bonds.

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Your Turn : Exercise 7.66-7.71 18
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 Drawing Electron-Dot Structures of Radicals
■ Due to following octet rule, most compounds have
an even number of electrons, which are paired up
in filling orbitals.
■ A very few substances, called radicals (or
sometimes free radicals), have an odd number of
electrons, meaning that at least one of their
electrons must be unpaired in a half-filled orbital.
■ Because of their unpaired electron, radicals are
usually very reactive, rapidly undergoing some kind
of reaction that allows them to pair their electrons
and form a more stable product.

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 Drawing Electron-Dot Structures of Radicals
■ Isolated halogen atoms dimerize to form halogen
molecules, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) dimerizes to
form dinitrogen tetroxide (N2O4).

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 Drawing Electron-Dot Structures of Radicals
■ Despite their high reactivity, small amounts of
radicals are involved in many common processes,
including the combustion of fuels, the industrial
preparation of polyethylene and other polymers,
and the ongoing destruction of the Earth’s ozone
layer in the upper atmosphere by
chlorofluorocarbons.
■ Perhaps more surprisingly, radicals are also present
in the human body, where they both mediate
important life processes and act as causal factors
for many diseases, including cancer, emphysema,
stroke, and diabetes.
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