CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

How do you find the electron density?

Draw out the lewis structure then count the total regions of high electron density around the central atom. These areas of high intensity include unbonded electrons and bonds.

Electron density is the number of bonds and unpaired electrons around an atom. Bonds, whether single, double or triple and unpaired electrons count as one region of electron density. If there are 3 bonds attached to an atom and one pair of unpaired electrons, it has 4 regions of electron density.

To find the electron density you would use the Lewis structure and count the areas of electron density around the central atom. You would do this by counting each double and triple bond as one area of high electron density and every lone pair as an area of high electron density.

To find the electron density, you add up all the bonding and unshared electron pairs that are around the central atom after drawing the lewis structure, counting double and triple bonds as one region high electron density.

The first part is drawing the full Lewis structure diagram. Then the bonds and lone pair electrons on the central atom determine electron density.