Question

Draw the electron dot structure of ethane molecule (${{C}_{2}}{{H}_{6}}$ ).

Answer 1

Hint: For the required structure, we need to consider the Lewis structure. For that consider the number of valence electrons for the given molecule and draw the structure. Also, one needs to know that an ethane molecule has 2 carbon atoms and 6 hydrogen atoms. The homologous series formula for alkanes is followed here as Ethane is an alkane. The formula is ${{C}_{n}}{{H}_{2n+2}}$

Complete Step by Step Solution:
The chemical structure for the ethane molecule is given below:
     $C{{H}_{3}}-C{{H}_{3}}$
All the bonds present in the ethane molecule are covalent bonds. The Electron dot structure for ethane molecule is:

● We know that on the basis of outermost shell electron configuration of Carbon, there is 4 valence electrons for Carbon whereas there is only 1 valence electron for Hydrogen. They are shared as shown in the structure through a covalent bond.
● Each carbon atom is surrounded by three hydrogen atoms as shown.

Note: Some interesting facts about Ethane are that it is the second in the list of Homologous series of Alkane. First one being, Methane whose chemical formula is $C{{H}_{4}}$ , the other ones in this series are Propane (${{C}_{3}}{{H}_{8}}$ ), Butane (${{C}_{4}}{{H}_{10}}$ ) and so on.