Creating a Lewis Stucture

[Melissa_Aguirre1J]

I know that the element with the lowest ionization energy goes in the middle, but, when you have a lot of elements, how do you determine which ones go on the side of it and on top of it?

[Melissa_Aguirre1J]

An example of this would be H2C(NH2)COOH

[Melissa_Aguirre1J]

Another example would be CH3CH2OH

[octaviahuang1f]

I don't think this was really covered in class, but for H2C(NH2)COOH, it has a carboxylic acid (R-COOH) and an amidogen (NH2-). That leaves the central atom with lowest ionization energy, which is carbon. The carbon goes in the middle, and NH2- and R-COOH go on both sides. Finally the two hydrogen goes on the central carbon.
Hope this helps!! :)

[Johanna Caprietta 1E]

I remember in class Lavelle said the Hydrogen is the exception in which it does not complete an octet. So when you're looking at molecules, hydrogen should never be in the middle if the molecule has a lot of valence electrons. You would then have to look at the next lowest energy if that makes any sense.

[204917020]

I don't think it matters where you put the rest of the elements around the center as long as you satisfy the proper formal charge and octets(or duets).

[Kuldeep Gill 1H]

Hydrogen cannot be in the middle because it is only able to form one bond.

[Samantha Draghi 1L]

I believe withe the exception off hydrogen you start with the lowest ionization energy element and since there will be multiple central atoms you can just build from there as long as when you are finished you satisfy the correct formal charge

[Vienna Cimetta 1L]

Honestly i think it all just comes down to trial and error. Once you have the central atom you just have to place the others in a way to find the lowest formal charge. If you see something an element with a +1 charge, try to take a lone pair from an adjacent element and create a double bond. Sometimes that's a trick to neutralize the charge.