The best Lewis structure for a carbonate ion, CO\u2083\u00b2\u207b, should show 1<\/strong> single bond(s), 2<\/strong> double bond(s), and 0<\/strong> lone pair(s) of electrons on the central atom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, the correct Lewis structure has 1 double bond, 2 single bonds, and no lone pairs on the central carbon atom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The best Lewis structure for a carbonate ion, CO, should show \\ single bond(s), \\ double bond(s), and \\ lone pair(s) of electrons on the \\ central atom. \\ Fill in the blanks using number, eg. 0, 1, 2, 3, etc. The Correct Answer and Explanation is: The best Lewis structure for a carbonate ion, […]<\/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-246626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246626","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=246626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246626\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Explanation:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
The carbonate ion (CO\u2083\u00b2\u207b) consists of carbon (C) and oxygen (O). Carbon is in Group 14 of the periodic table, so it has 4 valence electrons<\/strong>. Each oxygen atom (Group 16) has 6 valence electrons<\/strong>, and there are three oxygen atoms in the ion. The ion carries a 2- charge<\/strong>, so we add 2 extra electrons. The total number of valence electrons = (4\u00a0from\u00a0C)+(3\u00d76\u00a0from\u00a0O)+2\u00a0(charge)=24\u00a0valence\u00a0electrons.(4 \\text{ from C}) + (3 \\times 6 \\text{ from O}) + 2 \\text{ (charge)} = 24 \\text{ valence electrons}.(4\u00a0from\u00a0C)+(3\u00d76\u00a0from\u00a0O)+2\u00a0(charge)=24\u00a0valence\u00a0electrons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
The central atom is carbon<\/strong>, which forms bonds with each of the three oxygen atoms. Since carbon only needs 4 valence electrons to complete its octet, it will form one double bond with one oxygen and two single bonds with the other two oxygen atoms. This creates a structure where carbon has a formal charge of 0<\/strong> (ideal situation).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
The carbonate ion has resonance, meaning that the bonds between carbon and oxygen are not fixed. The actual structure is a hybrid, with the bond order being an average of one and a third. Therefore, each of the C\u2013O bonds is considered to have partial double-bond character<\/strong>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
In the best Lewis structure, carbon does not have any lone pairs. It uses all its valence electrons for bonding with oxygen atoms.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/learnexams-banner5-902.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"