Electrons Moving Around

[Kellylin_4D]

When doing Lewis structures, are electrons able to just "leave" their "home" atoms? Like, they are able to just go to another atom just to fulfill the octet rule?

[Mashkinadze_1D]

The electrons never "leave". This is why they are shared, the two cross paths and then enter the orbitals of the other element but to say that they were leaving would be incorrect. This is why when a bond is covalent on a Lewis structure we are able to add one of the electrons into the shell of the other, but we would never be able to have this same shell configuration the moment that element stopped covalently bonding as there is no "leaving".

[RobertXu_2J]

If they form ions, then yes the electron "leaves". However if it's a covalent bond, then no, the electrons don't leave their home atoms, instead it creates kind of a "shared" orbital between the two atoms.

[HuyHa_2H]

Electrons don't really leave, but rather they are shared among atoms to form ions.