CHEM 112 Chapter Notes -Formal Charge, Lewis Structure, Covalent Bond
13 Oct 2014
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In an ideal covalent bond, electrons are exactly equally shared. Thus, we can imagine that half the electrons in each bond live on each of the two atoms participating in that bond at any given time. This leads to a very simple formula for the charge carried by an atom: we can easily determine the number of valence electrons of a neutral atom. If we can gure out whether an atom in a molecule has more or less valence electrons than the neutral atom, then we immediately know its charge. In other words, the di erence between the number of valence electrons of the neutral atom and the number of electrons it carries in a molecule is an estimate of its charge: Note that the sum of the formal charges in a molecular species is equal to the total charge, zero for a neutral molecule. Example 1. 1 the lewis diagram of carbon dioxide is.
