Do polyatomic ions with an odd number of electrons obey the octet rule?

1 Answer
anor277
Dec 21, 2016

Of course they cannot........

Explanation:

So I can give you a well-worn example.

#NO_2#, #"nitrogen(IV) dioxide"# clearly has an odd electron. Why clearly?

A reasonable Lewis structure would be #O=N^(+)-O^-#; there are 6 electrons around nitrogen and thus it bears a positive charge. Because there are only 6 valence electrons around nitrogen, this centre bears (i) a formal positive charge; and (ii) a single, nitrogen-centred electron.

The lone electron on nitrogen is conceived to couple with another #NO_2# centre to form the #O_2N-NO_2# dimer, where there is again formal charge separation. Can you represent this by means of Lewis structures?

Related questions
See all questions in Octet Rule
Impact of this question
3048 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License