Question

How do you draw the Lewis structures of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide?

Answer 1

Hint The answer is based on the concept of inorganic chemistry which tells us about the Lewis dot structures which is nothing but the diagrams that denote the valence electrons of atoms within a molecule.

Complete step – by – step answer:
In the classes of chemistry, we have studied about the various notations used to write the structure of the molecules, we have also studied about the representing lone pair of electrons present on the atom and also other concepts relating to it.
We shall see the method to write the Lewis dot structure of the carbon dioxide as well as carbon monoxide.
- Lewis dot structures which are also called as the electron dot structures are the diagrams which denote the total valence electrons present on that atom in a molecule.
- The valence electrons of the atom can be found by writing their electronic configuration or can also be directly determined based on the atomic number. The outermost electrons present in the atom can be known by this which is nothing but the valence electrons.
- Now in the given two compounds, let us write the Lewis dot structures one by one.
- For carbon dioxide, the total valence electrons present as a whole of compound are $6+6+4=16$ valence electrons in it and two lone pairs of electrons on the oxygen atom.
The Lewis dot structure for this compound can be written as shown below,

Similarly, the total valence electrons present in the carbon monoxide are$6+4=10$and the Lewis dot structure for this compound is,

Note: Note that these Lewis dot structures help to visualize the valence electrons present in the atom of a molecule and also given information about whether they exist as lone pairs of electrons or within the bond. These structures are simply called Lewis structures.