Chemical Bonding: OH^- Lewis Structure

Drawing the Lewis Structure for OH^- (Hydroxide Ion)

Viewing Notes:

• For the Lewis Structure for OH^- the negative sign means that you have an extra valence electron. That's the only way you can make this Lewis structure work.
• OH^- is a negative ion (called and ion).
• You have 8 total valance electrons available for the OH^- Lewis structure.

Transcript: This is the OH- Lewis structure. We have 6 valence electrons for the Oxygen, plus one for the Hydrogen, and this negative sign up here means we have an additional electron for a total of 8 valence electrons for the OH- Lewis structure. Put our Oxygen right here, and next to it, we'll put a Hydrogen. We have 8 valence electrons for the OH- Lewis structure. We'll put 2 between the Hydrogen and Oxygen to form a chemical bond.

We'll go around the Oxygen to complete its octet: 4, 6, and 8. So at this point, the Hydrogen has two valence electrons, so it has a full outer shell; and the Oxygen, it needs eight for an octet, and it has eight. And we're still only using the eight valence electrons we have for the OH- Lewis structure. One last thing: we do need to put brackets around it and a negative sign to show that it's an ion.

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