Octet Rule

[Tracey Tran 3I]

Why are H, He, Li, and Be exceptions to the octet rule?

[EmilyJoo_1G]

Hydrogen, beryllium, and helium only have space for two electrons in their valence shell. Lithium only has space for three.

[Montana James 4G]

because they have too few electrons to form an octet

[Jialun Chen 4F]

They don't have enough electrons to complete an octet if I recalled correctly.

[SarahCoufal_1k]

They don't have enough electrons to begin with to then go form an octet. It would take a lot of energy to do so I think. Hydrogen can only have two in its first shell, so it has its own version of the octet rule

[Arvind 4G]

They don't fill up their second shell, rather they lose electrons to fill only their first shell which only has two electrons.

[Anthony Hatashita 4H]

They can't form an octet and never would in nature because they would never receive electrons for that, they are stable at lower values.