{"id":237939,"date":"2025-06-17T18:22:56","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T18:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=237939"},"modified":"2025-06-17T18:22:58","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T18:22:58","slug":"draw-a-valid-lewis-electron-dot-structure-for-phosphorus-trichloride-pcl3-accounting-for-all-valence-electrons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/17\/draw-a-valid-lewis-electron-dot-structure-for-phosphorus-trichloride-pcl3-accounting-for-all-valence-electrons\/","title":{"rendered":"Draw a valid Lewis electron dot structure for phosphorus trichloride (PCl3) accounting for all valence electrons."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Draw a valid Lewis electron dot structure for phosphorus trichloride (PCl3) accounting for all valence electrons. State the shape of PCl3 molecules. How many &#8216;lone pairs&#8217; does this molecule have<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-0-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Lewis Electron Dot Structure for Phosphorus Trichloride (PCl\u2083):<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To draw the Lewis structure for <strong>PCl\u2083<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Count total valence electrons:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Phosphorus (P) has 5 valence electrons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Each Chlorine (Cl) atom has 7 valence electrons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Total = 5 (from P) + 3 \u00d7 7 (from 3 Cl) = <strong>26 valence electrons<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Choose a central atom:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Phosphorus is less electronegative than chlorine, so it becomes the <strong>central atom<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Create single bonds:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Connect each Cl atom to the P atom using single bonds.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Each bond uses 2 electrons, so 3 bonds = 6 electrons used.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Remaining electrons = 26 \u2212 6 = <strong>20 electrons<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Distribute remaining electrons:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Place 6 electrons (3 lone pairs) around each chlorine to complete their octets: 3 \u00d7 6 = 18 electrons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Remaining electrons = 20 \u2212 18 = <strong>2 electrons<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Place leftover electrons on phosphorus:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Place the final 2 electrons (1 lone pair) on the phosphorus atom.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>The Lewis structure looks like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">lessCopyEdit<code>    Cl\n     |\nCl - P - Cl\n     ..\n<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>Here, the dots represent a lone pair on phosphorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Molecular Shape of PCl\u2083:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong>shape<\/strong> of the PCl\u2083 molecule is <strong>trigonal pyramidal<\/strong>. This shape arises because phosphorus has three bonding pairs and one lone pair of electrons. According to <strong>VSEPR theory<\/strong> (Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion), the electron pairs around the central atom repel each other and adopt a geometry that minimizes this repulsion. In this case, the presence of one lone pair pushes the bonding pairs down, forming a three-sided pyramid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Number of Lone Pairs:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Phosphorus: <strong>1 lone pair<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Each Chlorine: <strong>3 lone pairs<\/strong> \u00d7 3 = 9 lone pairs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Total lone pairs in the molecule: 1 + 9 = 10 lone pairs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the number of lone pairs <strong>on the molecule itself<\/strong> (that is, on central atom P) is <strong>1<\/strong>.<\/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-banner8-949.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-237940\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Draw a valid Lewis electron dot structure for phosphorus trichloride (PCl3) accounting for all valence electrons. State the shape of PCl3 molecules. How many &#8216;lone pairs&#8217; does this molecule have The Correct Answer and Explanation is: Lewis Electron Dot Structure for Phosphorus Trichloride (PCl\u2083): To draw the Lewis structure for PCl\u2083: The Lewis structure looks [&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-237939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237939","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=237939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}