{"id":230106,"date":"2025-06-08T19:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-06-08T19:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=230106"},"modified":"2025-06-08T19:47:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T19:47:11","slug":"many-unshared-electrons-on-the-central-atom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/08\/many-unshared-electrons-on-the-central-atom\/","title":{"rendered":"many unshared electrons on the central atom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>many unshared electrons on the central atom? &#8211; What\u2019s the formal charge on the central atom?<br>When the best Lewis structure for IO2 is correctly drawn, it will have: &#8211; How many covalent bonds? &#8211; How many unshared electrons on the central atom? &#8211; What\u2019s the formal charge on the central atom?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-1-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To analyze the Lewis structure of <strong>IO\u2082<\/strong> (iodine dioxide), we will determine:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The number of <strong>covalent bonds<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The number of <strong>unshared electrons<\/strong> (lone pairs) on the central atom (iodine)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>formal charge<\/strong> on the central atom<\/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\"><strong>Correct Answers:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Covalent bonds:<\/strong> 2 single bonds and 1 dative\/double bond (resonance), so effectively <strong>2 covalent bonds with resonance<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Unshared electrons on iodine (central atom):<\/strong> <strong>2 electrons<\/strong> (1 lone pair)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Formal charge on iodine:<\/strong> <strong>+1<\/strong><\/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\"><strong>Explanation <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Step 1: Determine total valence electrons<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Iodine (I) is in group 17 \u2192 7 valence electrons<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Oxygen (O) is in group 16 \u2192 6 valence electrons \u00d7 2 = 12<br><strong>Total = 7 + 12 = 19 valence electrons<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the species is <strong>neutral<\/strong>, but <strong>odd-electron species<\/strong>, which means <strong>IO\u2082<\/strong> is a <strong>radical<\/strong> (an odd number of electrons).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But <strong>most references<\/strong> and stable Lewis structures refer to the <strong>IO\u2082\u207b<\/strong> (iodite ion), which has <strong>20 valence electrons<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Assuming we are referring to <strong>neutral IO\u2082<\/strong> (the radical), it cannot have a fully closed-shell Lewis structure. But since the question asks about \u201cbest Lewis structure,\u201d we assume a structure using resonance and expanded octet rules for iodine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Step 2: Draw the best Lewis structure<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Iodine can expand its octet (as it is in period 5). A common stable structure places iodine in the center with <strong>two single bonds to oxygen atoms<\/strong>, <strong>one lone pair<\/strong>, and a <strong>delocalized \u03c0 bond<\/strong> shared via resonance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This leads to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>2 covalent bonds<\/strong> (sometimes written with double-bond resonance)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>1 lone pair<\/strong> (2 electrons) on iodine<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Formal charge:<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Formal Charge = valence \u2013 (non-bonding + \u00bd bonding)<\/strong><br>For iodine:<br>= 7 \u2013 (2 non-bonding + 6 bonding electrons \/ 2)<br>= 7 \u2013 (2 + 3) = <strong>+2<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, when resonance and one double bond is added, we get <strong>+1<\/strong> as a more stable formal charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Covalent bonds:<\/strong> 2 (with resonance)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Unshared electrons:<\/strong> 2 electrons (1 lone pair)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Formal charge on iodine:<\/strong> <strong>+1<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This structure minimizes formal charges while obeying octet rules as far as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner5-169.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-230107\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>many unshared electrons on the central atom? &#8211; What\u2019s the formal charge on the central atom?When the best Lewis structure for IO2 is correctly drawn, it will have: &#8211; How many covalent bonds? &#8211; How many unshared electrons on the central atom? &#8211; What\u2019s the formal charge on the central atom? The Correct Answer and [&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-230106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230106","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=230106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}