Octet Rule

[Matthew Nguyen 2F]

I know that Professor Lavelle said that there were exceptions to the octet rule in Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, and Beryllium, but are there any others that would be good to know about?

[Sanjana Sivakumar 2E]

Hello!

I remembered there are a few general rules that I briefly looked at back in high school, so I did a bit more research and found them! There are 3 general rules for the exceptions to the octet rule:

1) Molecules have an odd number of valence electrons
2) Molecules have more than 8 valence electrons and
3) Molecules have less than 8 valence electrons

A really good website on this is https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/General_Chemistry/Book%3A_General_Chemistry%3A_Principles_Patterns_and_Applications_(Averill)/08%3A_Ionic_versus_Covalent_Bonding/8.06%3A_Exceptions_to_the_Octet_Rule

(That's where I found the info^^)

Hope this helps!

[Michelle Argueta 1E]

Hi!
Another exception to the octet rule is molecules such as NO (who has an odd number of electrons instead of 8) and SF6 (which possesses more than 8 electrons) and BCl3 (which at least one atom has less than eight electrons).

[605703266]

I don't think so

[Kimia Rategh 2A]

Hi! If I remember correctly, I believe Professor Lavelle mentioned that elements in the d block also do not follow that rule. I think its because the d block is able to store up to 10 electrons thus clearly holding much more than 8 electrons total in the outer shell and therefore, we they could not follow the octet rule.

[Alyssa Cua 2J]

Hello!

I remembered there are a few general rules that I briefly looked at back in high school, so I did a bit more research and found them! There are 3 general rules for the exceptions to the octet rule:

1) Molecules have an odd number of valence electrons
2) Molecules have more than 8 valence electrons and
3) Molecules have less than 8 valence electrons

A really good website on this is https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/General_Chemistry/Book%3A_General_Chemistry%3A_Principles_Patterns_and_Applications_(Averill)/08%3A_Ionic_versus_Covalent_Bonding/8.06%3A_Exceptions_to_the_Octet_Rule

(That's where I found the info^^)

Hope this helps!

Super helpful! Thanks for this resource!