Question

Draw the Lewis structure of CO. Include lone pairs and formal charges.

Answer 1

Concepts and reason

The Lewis dot structure of carbon monoxide that is CO needs to be drawn. Consider the valence electrons of each atom and distribute them in pair to form bonds between the atoms so as to satisfy the octet of each atom. The structure obtained is the required Lewis structure.

Find out the formal charge by finding out the bonded and non-bonded electrons and substituting them in the formula for formal charge.

Fundamentals

Lewis structure: The features of a Lewis structure are as follows:

• The Lewis structure of a molecule represents the bonding electrons that is the electrons that take part in bond formation and non-bonding electrons or lone pairs.

• The Lewis structure is also known as electron-dot structure because the valence shell electrons are placed around the atom’s symbol.

• Bond formation takes place either by covalent (mutual sharing of electrons) or ionic (complete electrons transfer) bonding in order to complete the octet of the atoms involved.

Formal charge: It is the charge possessed by an atom in a molecule.

The atoms are placed as shown in figure given below and the lesser electronegative atom is carbon.

The total number of valence electrons are 10.

Draw single bonds to the central atom from the total valence electrons as shown below. A bond takes up two electrons.

Distribute the remaining 8 electrons in pairs as shown in figure below:

Complete the octet of carbon to get the Lewis structure of CO.

The formal charge on carbon is -1 whereas on oxygen is +1. This is the complete structure of CO along with formal charges and lone pairs.

Ans:

The Lewis structure of CO is as follows: