FORMAL CHARGE

[april_bussey_1C]

When trying to figure out the formal charge of a bond, how do we know the amount of loan pair electrons?

[Chem_Mod]

Formal charge of the "atom" will depend on the number of lone pair electrons and bonding electrons you assigned for your Lewis structure.

[april_bussey_1C]

Okay, sorry i'm getting used to the terms for this chapter. So, the lone pair electrons would be the electrons not shared with another atom (on the lewis structure it would be the dots on the outside of the element letters right)?

[sylvie_1D]

I find that drawing out the electron configuration helps give a good visual on how many lone pairs there are.

[Bianca Nguyen 1B]

Also, I believe the amount of lone pair electrons will be the electrons on an atom that are not shared through bonds.

[Bianca Nguyen 1B]

Yes, I think they are the dots!

[octaviahuang1f]

Yes, I agree that the lone pairs are the dots surrounding that letter. If you subtract the valence electron by these lone pairs and 1/2 the bonding electrons, you get the formal charge. Hope this helps!

[Maria Roman 1A]

the lone pair electrons would be the dots

[Jessica Lancisi - 1I]

Can the lone pair electrons also be shown as lines on the sides of the atom?

[Neha Divi 1K]

The lines represent a bond between two atoms. Drawing a line on atom to represent a lone pair would not represent what the structure actually looks like since there is no bond. So when drawing lone pairs, just use the dots.