Chemical Bonding: Cl₂CO Lewis Structure

Drawing the Lewis Structure for Cl₂CO

Viewing Notes:

• The Lewis structure for Cl₂CO requires you to place Carbon in the center of the structure since it is the most electronegative.
• You'll need a double bond between the Carbon and Oxygen atoms to acheive full outer shells for the atoms while still only using 24 valence electrons.
• There are a total of 24 valence electrons for Cl₂CO.

Transcript: This is the Cl2CO Lewis structure: Carbonyl Dichloride. For Cl2CO, we have 7 valence electrons for Chlorine; we have 2 Chlorines. Plus 4 for Carbon and 6 for Oxygen for a total of 24 valence electrons. Carbon is the least electronegative--we'll put that in the center. Let's put the Chlorines on either side and then we can put the Oxygen on top here.

We have 24 valence electrons for the Cl2CO Lewis structure. We'll put 2 of the electrons between each of the atoms to form chemical bonds. We've used 6. Then we'll go around the outside--8, 10, and 24. So we've used all 24 valence electrons, but the central Carbon only has 6 electrons. The other atoms do have octets with 8.

So we need to fix that. We can take two valence electrons from the Oxygen here, and share them between the Oxygen and the Carbon to form a double bond. We're still only using 24 valence electrons, but the Oxygen still has an octet, and the Carbon now has 8 valence electrons because of that double bond we formed with the Oxygen. So we've used all 24 valence electrons, we've satisfied the octets on each of the atoms.

So this is the Lewis structure for Cl2CO. This is Dr. B., and thanks for watching.