How can I draw the Lewis structure for ClO2-?

1 Answer
Jul 15, 2014

Here's how I would do it.

Explanation:

You can find the procedure here.

For #"ClO"_2^"-", "Cl"# is the less electronegative atom. So, #"Cl"# is the central atom

The skeleton structure is #"O-Cl-O".#

The trial structure is

Trial structure

You have 20 valence electrons in your trial structure.

The valence electrons you have available are: #"1 Cl + 2 O + 1 e" = 1×7 + 2×6 + 1 = 20#.

Hence, the trial structure has the correct number of electrons.

The formal charge on each atom is:

#"Cl" = 7 - 4 - ½(4) = +1; "O" = 6 – 6 - ½(2) = "-1"#

Every atom has a formal charge.

We can reduce the number of formal charges by moving a lone pair of electrons from #"O"# to form a #"Cl=O"# double bond.

This gives us two new structures in which one #"O"# atom has #"FC = -1"# and the other atoms have #"FC = 0"#:

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The actual structure is nine of these. Rather, it is a resonance hybrid of them both

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