Lowest energy lewis structure

[Odalys Cuevas 1C]

Can someone explain how to determine the lowest energy Lewis structure of a molecule and maybe provide an example.

[Eli Esagoff_1I]

You want all formal charge to be 0 or closest to 0 when there is a charge on the molecule.

[Cindy Nguyen 1L]

This thread might help.

viewtopic.php?f=33&t=31624&p=103217&hilit=Lewis+structures&sid=450ab185a9474d380218e0e88a8cc6d7#p103217

"formal charge purpose" is the title of the thread.

Basically you draw a Lewis structure and then calculate the formal charge of every atom. Then, you draw double/triple bonds, make an expanded octet, or move around the atoms to try to make formal charge for each atom as close to 0 as possible.

You can also search up "stable lewis structures" in Chemistry Community for examples of finding the most stable Lewis structure.

[Kuldeep Gill 1H]

To determine the lowest energy Lewis structure you are going to want to find the formal charge of each atom and add up all the charges. If you find that you can cancel one of the charges out by adding a double bond then do that. You also want to get as close to one charge as possible so either all positive or all negative even though there are some cases where you just can't cancel out two different charges. Hope that helps!

[chemlover]

you want to make sure your bonds will make sure that the formal charge is the lowest.

[Caitlyn Ponce 1L]

The Lewis structure with the lowest energy will be the one with the lowest formal charge overall. Also, if the individual atoms have formal charges not equal to zero, its best to put opposite charges next to one another.