Chemical Bonding: H₂S Lewis Structure

Drawing the Lewis Structure for H₂S

Viewing Notes:

• The Lewis structure for H₂S is very similar to H₂O.
• Hydrogen is in Group 1 and therefore has only one valence electron. But since you have two hydrogens you need to multiply by two.
• Hydrogen atoms only need 2 valence electrons to have a full outer shell.
• The Lewis structure for H₂S has a total of 8 valence electrons.

Transcript: All right, this is Dr. B. Let's do the Lewis structure for H2S: Dihydrogen Sulfide. On the periodic table: Hydrogen, group 1, has 1 valence electron, but we have two Hydrogens here so let's multiply that by 2. Plus Sulfur is in group 6 or 16 on the periodic table, so it has 6 valence electrons. Total of 8 valence electrons. Let's draw this thing. We'll put Sulfur here. Hydrogen always goes on the outside, we'll put it out there. Now we want to take some of these valence electrons and spread them around the atoms. Let's start by forming a chemical bond between the Hydrogens and Sulfur.

So we've used 4 valence electrons, and we have 8. Hydrogen only needs 2 for a full outer shell, which it has. So Hydrogen's good. We'll put the remaining valence electrons around the Sulfur, which needs eight for a full outer shell. It has eight valence electrons. We've used all the 8 of valence electrons we had to do the Lewis structure for H2S. So that's fine; we're done with that.

We can draw a structural formula for it like this here. The structural formula is bent, because it is a bent molecule. These valence electrons, these unbonded valence electrons kind of push the Hydrogens down.

This is Dr. B., thanks for watching.