Drawing the Lewis Structure for NOBr

Viewing Notes:

  • The NOBr Lewis structure is very similar to NOCl and the NOF.
  • In NOBr Lewis structure Nitrogen (N) is the least electronegative atom and goes in the center of the Lewis structure.
  • Check the formal charges to be sure that each atom has a formal charge of zero.
  • In the Lewis structure for NOBr there are a total of 18 valence electrons.


Transcript: Let's do the NOBr Lewis structure. Nitrogen has 5 valence electrons, it's in group 5 or 15 on the periodic table. Oxygen has 6 and Br has 7 for a total of 18 valence electrons. Nitrogen's the least electronegative, let's put that in the center. We'll put an Oxygen over here and then a Br over here. We'll put two valence electrons between atoms to form a chemical bond; we've used four. And then on the outer atoms, so 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, over here, 12, 14, 16, we have two more we'll put right here, 18.

So we can see the Oxygen and the Br both have eight valence electrons. They have octets, but the Nitrogen only has six valence electrons. So it does not have an octet. We can take these two electrons here from the Oxygen and move them and form a double bond, so now they're sharing them. And that should fix our octet problem. So we can see that the Oxygen still has eight valence electrons, but now the Nitrogen has eight valence electrons, so its octet is full. And the Bromine, it still has eight electrons, as well.

So we've used all 18 valence electrons. Each of the atoms has octets. So this is the Lewis structure for NOBr. We could also check the formal charges. And if you do, you'll find out the formal charge on each atom is zero. So that makes this the best structure.

This is Dr. B. with the Lewis structure for NOBr, and thanks for watching.