Chemical Bonding: BrO₂^- Lewis Structure

Drawing the Lewis Structure for BrO₂^-

Viewing Notes:

• The BrO₂^- Lewis structure has a total of 20 valence electrons. This includes the electron represented by the negative charge in BrO₂^-.
• You need to put brackets around the BrO₂^- Lewis structure as well as a negative charge to show that the structure is a negative ion.
• If you calculate the formal charges for the initial BrO₂^- Lewis structure you'll find that the Bromine (Br) has a +1 charge and the Oxygen atoms each have a formal charge of -1. You'll need to form a double bond between a Bromine and Oxygen atom to reduce the formal charge and generate a more plausible Lewis structure. Doing so results in the entire structure a -1 charge (remember it's BrO₂^-, it should be negative).

Hi, this is Dr. B. Let's do the BrO2- Lewis structure. For BrO2- we have 20 valence electrons, and that includes this extra electron up here. We'll start, we'll put the Br in the Center, the Oxygens on either side. Let's put 2 electrons between the the Br and the O's to form chemical bonds. Go around the outside, so we've used 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, back to the central atom, 18, and 20.

So we've used all 20 valence electrons. This Oxygen also has an octet, and the Bromine in the center, it has an octet as well. One last step, since it is an ion, we need to put brackets around the molecule and show people that it is an ion with a negative charge. And that looks like this right here.

So that's the Lewis structure for BrO2-. This is Dr. B., and thanks for watching.