How do you draw the Lewis structure for the molecule containing one C and four F atoms?

1 Answer
Mar 5, 2017

Four valence electrons on carbon, and 7 valence electrons on fluorine.

Explanation:

We have 32 valence electrons to distribute around 5 centres. And this gives 4 #C-F# bonds, and 3 lone pairs around each fluorine atom, i.e. 16 electron pairs as required.

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Because there are FOUR regions of electron density around the central carbon atoms, VESPER predicts that the most stable geometry is tetrahedral with respect to carbon, with #/_F-C-F=109.5^@#. The electronic geometry around each fluorine atom would also be tetrahedral, but we have no handle here.