Chemical Bonding: NO₂Cl Lewis Structure

Drawing the Lewis Structure for NO₂Cl

Viewing Notes:

• There are a total of 24 valence electrons in the NO₂Cl Lewis structure.
• Nitrogen (N) is the least electronegative atom and goes at the center of the NO₂Cl Lewis structure.
• With NO₂Cl you'll need to form a double bond between one of the Oxygen atoms and a Nitrogen atom to fill the octets and still use only the 24 valence electrons available for the molecule.

Transcript: This is the NO2Cl Lewis structure. For NO2Cl, we have a total of 24 valence electrons. Nitrogen is the least electronegative, we'll put that at the center, put the Oxygens on either side, and we'll put the Chlorine on top. We'll put 2 valence electrons between atoms to form chemical bonds. We've used six. Then around the outside atoms, 8, 10, and 24. So we've used all 24 valence electrons.

All the atoms have octets, except Nitrogen here in the center only has 6 valence electrons. Let's take 2 valence electrons from Oxygen, since it's less electronegative than Chlorine and will be willing to share, and put that between the Nitrogen and Oxygen to form a double bond. So we're still using 24 valence electrons in the NO2Cl Lewis structure, and Oxygen still has an octet. But now Nitrogen also has an octet because we used that double bond there.

So that's the Lewis structure for NO2Cl. This is Dr. B., and thanks for watching.