How are covalent bonds represented in Lewis dot diagrams?
1 Answer
In a Lewis structure, atoms that are bonded covalently are represented by a single line joining the two atoms, which are represented by the element's chemical symbol. Covalent bonds occur mainly in diatomic molecules, such as hydrogen, nitrogen, fluorine, chlorine, bromine, iodine, and astatine.
The Lewis dot diagram for the covalent bonding of chlorine, (
When atoms are bonded ionically, the bond is represented by two dots between the element's chemical symbols. Ionic bonds are formed between charged particles (ions), so an example of an ionic compound would be NaCl, whose Lewis structure is:
