Chemical Bonding: CH₃COOH Lewis Structure

Drawing the Lewis Structure for CH₃COOH (Acetic Acid)

Viewing Notes:

• CH₃COOH is an organic compound and the COOH is the carboxylic acid functional group. If you recognize this the Lewis structure is much easier to draw.
• In CH₃COOH you should memorize what the COOH functional group looks like.
• Remember that Hydrogen only needs 2 valence electrons for a full outer shell.
• For the CH₃COOH Lewis structure there are a total of 24 valence electrons available.

Transcript: Hi, this is Dr. B. Let's draw the acetic acid Lewis structure. The key to drawing this structure is realizing this COOH right here is what we call a functional group. It's actually a pretty common functional group in organic chemistry. So whenever you see COOH, you know it's going to look like this right here. We can attach that, then, to the rest of this up here, this CH3. So I'll put the C right here, and the H's around it. In the acetic acid Lewis structure, we have 24 valence electrons. Let's count and make sure we've used them all. Two, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 22, 24.

So we've used all the valence electrons, and we've used all these elements up here to make our acetic acid Lewis structure. This is Dr. B., and thanks for watching.