{"id":208012,"date":"2025-04-25T20:49:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T20:49:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=208012"},"modified":"2025-04-25T20:49:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T20:49:32","slug":"draw-on-paper-the-lewis-structure-for-hypochlorous-acid-hoci-oxygen-is-the-central-atom-and-for-hydrogen-cyanide-hcn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/25\/draw-on-paper-the-lewis-structure-for-hypochlorous-acid-hoci-oxygen-is-the-central-atom-and-for-hydrogen-cyanide-hcn\/","title":{"rendered":"Draw on paper the Lewis structure for hypochlorous acid HOCI (oxygen is the central atom) and for hydrogen cyanide HCN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Draw on paper the Lewis structure for hypochlorous acid HOCI (oxygen is the central atom) and for hydrogen cyanide HCN. Calculate the formal charge for each atom in these compounds, and then label each atom in your drawing with its formal charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-6-color\"><strong>The correct answer and explanation is :<\/strong><\/mark><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Lewis Structures and Formal Charges of HOCl and HCN<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2705 <strong>LEWIS STRUCTURES (with formal charges labeled):<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Hypochlorous acid (HOCl), with oxygen as the central atom:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>H \u2013 O \u2013 Cl\n    ..   ..<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Hydrogen (H):<\/strong> 0 formal charge<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Oxygen (O):<\/strong> 0 formal charge<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Chlorine (Cl):<\/strong> 0 formal charge<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Hydrogen cyanide (HCN):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\"><code>H \u2013 C \u2261 N:\n       ..<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Hydrogen (H):<\/strong> 0 formal charge<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Carbon (C):<\/strong> 0 formal charge<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Nitrogen (N):<\/strong> 0 formal charge<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83e\udde0 EXPLANATION (300+ words):<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lewis Structures and Formal Charges:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>Lewis structure<\/strong> of a molecule shows how atoms are bonded and where the valence electrons are located. To assess whether a Lewis structure is correct, we calculate <strong>formal charges<\/strong> for each atom using the formula:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[<br>\\text{Formal charge} = \\text{Valence electrons} &#8211; (\\text{Lone pair electrons} + \\frac{1}{2} \\times \\text{Bonding electrons})<br>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udd0d 1. <strong>HOCl (Hypochlorous acid)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Given that <strong>oxygen is the central atom<\/strong>, it forms a <strong>single bond with hydrogen<\/strong> and a <strong>single bond with chlorine<\/strong>. Oxygen also has <strong>two lone pairs<\/strong>, giving it a total of 6 valence electrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>H (1 valence e\u207b):<\/strong> Bonded to O \u2192 1 bond (2 shared electrons), no lone pairs<br>[<br>1 &#8211; (0 + 1) = 0<br>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>O (6 valence e\u207b):<\/strong> 2 bonds (H and Cl) + 4 nonbonding electrons (2 lone pairs)<br>[<br>6 &#8211; (4 + 2) = 0<br>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cl (7 valence e\u207b):<\/strong> 1 bond with O + 6 nonbonding electrons (3 lone pairs)<br>[<br>7 &#8211; (6 + 1) = 0<br>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>So, all atoms have a <strong>formal charge of 0<\/strong>, indicating a stable structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\ud83d\udd0d 2. <strong>HCN (Hydrogen cyanide)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Here, carbon is the central atom. It forms a <strong>single bond with hydrogen<\/strong> and a <strong>triple bond with nitrogen<\/strong>. Nitrogen ends up with one lone pair, and carbon has no lone pairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>H (1 valence e\u207b):<\/strong> One bond<br>[<br>1 &#8211; (0 + 1) = 0<br>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>C (4 valence e\u207b):<\/strong> One single bond (H) + one triple bond (N) = 4 bonding pairs<br>[<br>4 &#8211; (0 + 4) = 0<br>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>N (5 valence e\u207b):<\/strong> Triple bond + 1 lone pair (2 electrons)<br>[<br>5 &#8211; (2 + 3) = 0<br>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Again, <strong>all formal charges are zero<\/strong>, confirming stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2705 Summary:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Both <strong>HOCl<\/strong> and <strong>HCN<\/strong> have zero formal charges on all atoms when drawn correctly, and this makes their Lewis structures both <strong>chemically stable and correct<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Draw on paper the Lewis structure for hypochlorous acid HOCI (oxygen is the central atom) and for hydrogen cyanide HCN. Calculate the formal charge for each atom in these compounds, and then label each atom in your drawing with its formal charge. The correct answer and explanation is : Lewis Structures and Formal Charges of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}