11. Bonding & Molecular Structure
Lewis Dot Structures: Acids
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Here it says to draw the Lewis dot structure for the nitric acid molecule, so HNO3. We're gonna step 0, we're gonna break up the acid into the h+ion and an anion. Now we're gonna say here that for the anion, follow steps 1 to 6 to draw its Lewis dot structure. Alright. So nitric acid is h+andthenn03minuteus. N o three minus is our anion. Nitrogen is in group 5 a, so it has 5 valence electrons. Oxygen has 6 because it's in group 6 a. So it's gonna be 5 +18. Minus 1 means we've gained an electron from an outside source. So that's 24 valence electrons. Let's draw it. Nitrogen goes in the center, it's gonna form single bonds with the oxygens. Now remember, we need to follow the octet rule for the surrounding elements. So we're adding electrons so now each oxygen has 8 electrons around them. But we run into an issue with the nitrogen. It only has 2, 4, 6 electrons around itself. To get it to also follow the octet rule, what do we do? Well, we're going to erase one of these lone pairs, and use it to make a double bond. Because Nitrate ion has a negative charge, we're gonna place it in brackets and the charge on the outside. So this is the drawing of the nitrate ion. Step 7 says, add the h+ ion to the surrounding elements with a form to the surrounding elements with a formal charge of minus 1. Now here, who's gonna have a formal charge of minus 1? It'll be one of the oxygens that has a formal charge of minus 1. So here remember, formal charge equals group number minus the bonds the element is making, plus each individual non bonding electron. So if we looked at this oxygen here, it's 6 minus 1 bond plus 6 which equals minus 1. So what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna erase one of these lone pairs here, and use it to connect to the hydrogen. So here, this here represents the nitric acid molecule and would be the correct representation for this particular
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