Radicals

[Victoria Luu - 1C]

What is a radical and how do you draw the Lewis structure for it?

[Henri_de_Guzman_3L]

A radical typically has an unpaired valence electron. A good example is the chlorine atom which has 7 valence electrons. You would draw this as Cl with 7 dots around it

[ChathuriGunasekera1D]

Hi! A radical is when an atom has one unbonded electron that is not in a pair. For example, in CH3, C has a radical because its fourth electron is not bonded. You draw your Lewis structure normally, and just put one dot instead of two to indicate a radical.

[EllaBerry]

A radical is when there is an electron that is unpaired (meaning it would be one dot by itself on the lewis structure instead of 2 next to each other).

[mbaker4E]

An easy way to tell if a neutral molecule is a radical is to count up the number of valence electrons in each atom and add them together - if your number is odd then it is most likely a radical.

[Briana Perez 3A]

One quick and easy way to tell if an element is a radical is by counting the number of valence electrons. If it comes out to an odd number then one electron will be unpaired and will therefore be a radical. If it comes out to an even number then there will be no unpaired electrons and therefore is not a radical.

[lindsey_ammann_4E]

Radicals have one unpaired, lone valence electron. They are very unstable and don't exist long by themselves in nature.
Here's an example of what it looks like and how you would draw it:

[Kobe_Wright]

Any atom with an unpaired valence electrong for instance sc2+.

[Jasmine Chow 1F]

A radical has lone pairs. Usually a single electron for example the element NH4+.

[Aiden Atoori 1C]

In chemistry, a radical is an atom, molecule, or ion that has an unpaired valence electron. With some exceptions, these unpaired electrons make radicals highly chemically reactive. Many radicals spontaneously dimerize. Most organic radicals have short lifetimes.

[Ashita Tanwar 3H]

For complex molecules that are radicals, how do you know which atom gets assigned the extra electron? Does it have to do with periodic trends?

[harperlacroix1a]

A radical has an unpaired valence electron on an atom