Stable Lewis structures
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Re: Stable Lewis structures
You first find the formal charge of each element in the compound, and then you compare the formal charges you have found for all structures and which ever structure has the most formal charges that are 0 or closest to 0 is the most stable structure out of what you are comparing. You can find the formal charges where the formal charge is equal to V-(L+1/2B), where v is the total number of valence electrons an element has, for instance oxygen would have 6, L is the amount of lone pairs and b is the amount of bonded electrons.
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Re: Stable Lewis structures
You basically want the structure with the least amount of charge which is found by calculating each element's formal charge. Ideally, there should be a formal charge of 0 for each element present.
Re: Stable Lewis structures
For more on determining stable lewis structures, refer to example 3.6 in the text book. It includes an example, and indicates the equation with all steps.
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