How do you draw the Lewis structure for the hypobromite ion, #BrO^-#?

1 Answer
Jan 19, 2018

Well, if two atoms are in space, how do they connect?


Given that #"Br"# has #7# valence electrons and #"O"^(-)# has #7# valence electrons (i.e. including the #-# charge), we have #14# valence electrons to distribute.

Halogens usually make one bond and have three lone pairs of electrons. With that, it is enough to come up with:

#:ddot"Br"-ddot"O": ^((-))#
#""color(white)(a)^(.." "" "..)#