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Ch.10 - Chemical Bonding I: The Lewis Model

Chapter 10, Problem 64c

Write the Lewis structure for each molecule or ion. c. BrO-

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Hey everyone, we're asked to draw a suitable lewis dot structure for the nitrite an ion 1st. Let's go ahead and count our valence electrons. We know that nitrogen is going to have five valence electrons. So we're going to multiply one times five since we have one nitrogen. This will get us to five valence electrons For oxygen, we have two of oxygen and we're going to multiply this by six valence electrons since oxygen is in our group six a and this will get us to a total of 12. Now, when we add these two values up, we get a total of 17 valence electrons. But since we have that -1 charge, we have to add one valence electron. So this means that we have a total of 18 valence electrons. So let's go ahead and draw out our Lewis structure. We know that nitrogen is going to be our central atom and it's going to be surrounded by two oxygen's one oxygen is going to be double bonded to our nitrogen and it will have two lone pairs while our other oxygen will have three lone pairs and in minus one formal charge. Since we are drawing out our nitrite an ion with a minus one charge and to complete nitrogen octet, we have to add a lone pair on it as well. So this is going to be our final answer for this question. So I hope that made sense. And let us know if you have any questions