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How many single bonds can oxygen form?

Answer
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458.7k+ views
Hint: The atomic number of oxygen is 8.
There are six valence electrons in oxygen.

Complete answer:
So in the question, it is asked how many single bonds oxygen can form. From the time we study chemistry, we are more concerned about the compound formation and chemical reactions. In every chemical reaction a type of chemical bonding happens and according to the chemical bonding the bonds are of different types.
Before going into the solution part let’s discuss how chemical bonds are formed and its types.
First of all as we said earlier, every chemical reaction will take place by the formation of or by breaking the chemical bonds.
Now the question is how chemical bonds are formed. Chemical bonds are either formed by gaining or losing the electrons by the atom or by mutually sharing the valence electrons between the atoms.
By losing and gaining the electrons charged species are formed like cations (positively charged) and anion (negatively charged) and these combine due to the electrostatic force of attraction and the type of bond formed is ionic bond.
And by the mutual sharing of the electrons the covalent bonds are formed.
These two are the major types of bonds seen in millions of compounds formed.
Chemical bond is the phenomenon of combining the constituent atoms or ions and thereby decreasing the energy and stabilizing the system. By the bond formation the system acquires stability.
We need at least a contribution of two electrons to form the chemical bond. By the formation of the chemical bond the atom attains octet configuration.
Now let’s see the solution for the question, here we are concerned about the O atom, which has the atomic number 8.
The electronic configuration of O is- $1{{s}^{2}}2{{s}^{2}}2{{p}^{4}}$
So from the electronic configuration we know that there are six valence electrons in O. There is a requirement of four more electrons to fulfill the octet configuration. Hence the O can only form two single bonds with other atoms, by forming two single bonds with the other atoms the O atoms will attain the stable octet configuration.

Note:
Oxygen cannot lose the six electrons as it requires a high energy for the removal of six electrons and hence they will only accept two more electrons and act as the anions.
The oxygen atom can only form one double bond with another atom.