Chemical Bonding: SCl₄ Lewis Structure

Drawing the Lewis Structure for SCl₄

Viewing Notes:

• For SCl₄ Lewis structure the Sulfur (S) atom is the least electronegative and goes at the center of the structure.
• Sulfur is in Period Four on the periodic table and can hold more than eight valence electrons.
• In the Lewis structure for SCl₄ we well need to put 10 valence electrons on the central Sulfur atom.
• The Lewis structure for SCl₄ has 34 valence electrons available to work with.

Transcript: This is the SCl4 Lewis structure: sulfur tetrachloride. Sulfur has 6 valence electrons. Chlorine has 7, but there are four Chlorines; so 6 plus 28 is 34 total valence electrons. Sulfur is the least electronegative, we'll put that at the center, and then we'll put the Chlorines around the outside. There are four Chlorines. We have a total of 34 valence electrons. We'll put a pair between the Sulfur and the Chlorines to form chemical bonds. We've used eight. Then we'll go around the outer atoms: 10, 12, and 32.

So at this point in the Lewis structure for SCl4, we've used 32 out of the 34 valence electrons. Since Sulfur's in period 3 on the periodic table, it can have more than eight valence electrons. So we'll just take those last two electrons and put them right there. So now we've used all 34 valence electrons. The octets are satisfied for the Chlorines; and Sulfur has ten valence electrons around it, but that's OK because it's in period 3. If you'll check the formal charges on each of the atoms, you'll find that the formal charges are zero.

So this is the best Lewis structure for SCl4. This is Dr. B., thanks for watching.