The Lewis structure of shows that the central phosphorus atom has __________ nonbonding and __________ bonding electron pairs.
Is the answer 1, 3
Is it 1 because it asked for PAIRS- so there are two electrons not bonded- so one pair?
You omitted the chemical about which you are asking.
Phosphorous
The compound is phosphorus WHAT? Or do you want phosphorus, as in P4?
The Lewis structure of WHAT shows that the central phosphorus atom has __________ nonbonding and __________ bonding electron pairs.
Sorry. PF3
See the link above at your repost.
To determine the number of nonbonding and bonding electron pairs in the Lewis structure of a molecule, you need to follow a few steps:
1. Count the total number of valence electrons for the molecule by adding up the valence electrons of each atom.
2. Determine the number of valence electrons needed to complete the octets of all the atoms in the molecule. For hydrogen, it needs 2 electrons, while for most other atoms like oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, etc., they require 8 electrons.
3. Subtract step 2 from step 1 to find the number of electrons available for bonding. These electrons will be shared between the atoms to form bonds.
4. Distribute the available electrons to form bonds between the atoms in the molecule.
5. If there are any remaining electrons after forming all the bonds, they will be nonbonding (also known as lone pair) electrons.
Now let's apply these steps to determine the number of nonbonding and bonding electron pairs in the Lewis structure of the molecule you provided.
1. The molecule's formula is not specified, so we can't determine the total number of valence electrons directly.
However, if we assume that the molecule you are referring to is phosphorus pentachloride (PCl5), which is common, then we can proceed with the calculation.
Phosphorus (P) has 5 valence electrons, and each chlorine atom (Cl) has 7 valence electrons. Multiplying the number of chlorine atoms (5) by their valence electrons (7) gives us 35 electrons. Adding phosphorus's 5 valence electrons to this total, we have 40 valence electrons in total.
2. To complete the octets of each atom, phosphorus needs 8 electrons (since it is beyond the second period), and each chlorine atom needs 8 electrons as well. Since PCl5 has one phosphorus atom and five chlorine atoms, a total of 40 electrons (5 x 8) are needed.
3. Subtracting the electrons needed for octet completion (40) from the total number of valence electrons (40) would result in zero electrons available for bonding (since we need all the electrons for octets).
Since there are no electrons available for bonding, there are no bonding electron pairs.
4. As calculated in step 3, there are no available electrons for bonding, so we cannot form any bonds in this case.
5. Since all the electrons are accounted for in completed octets, there are no remaining electrons, so there are no nonbonding (lone pair) electrons.
Therefore, the correct answer is 0 nonbonding electron pairs and 0 bonding electron pairs for the central phosphorus atom in the Lewis structure of the PCl5 molecule.