Lewis Structure of CO

[Hannah Guo 3D]

I drew the Lewis structure of CO as there is a double bond in between, so there are 2 lone pairs around the oxygen and 1 lone pair around the carbon, but the correct Lewis structure of CO has a triple bond in between and 1 lone pair around each atom. Isn't the formal charge of the first Lewis structure is closer to zero than the one of the second Lewis structure? Why is the second structure correct? Thank you!

[Rebecca Cheung 1E]

The second structure is right because carbon needs an octet. In the first structure, carbon needs two more electrons to fufill the octet rule.

[Abigail Yap 2K]

Hi,

Adding onto the previous reply, you have to find the structure with formal charges closest to zero while also obeying the octet rule. Simply positioning the electrons in a way to get the charges to zero is incorrect. I hope this helps.