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Chapter 5: Problem 14

How many lone pair of electrons are present on the central atom of \(\mathrm{CH}_{4}, \mathrm{H}_{2} \mathrm{O}, \mathrm{NH}_{3}, \mathrm{PCl}_{3}\) and \(\mathrm{PCl}_{5}\) molecules?

Short Answer

Expert verified
Answer: The number of lone pairs of electrons on the central atoms are 0 for CH4, 1 for H2O, 1 for NH3, 1 for PCl3, and 0 for PCl5.

Step by step solution

01

Identify central atom of each molecule

For each molecule, we will first identify the central atom as follows: - In CH4, the central atom is Carbon (C) - In H2O, the central atom is Oxygen (O) - In NH3, the central atom is Nitrogen (N) - In PCl3, the central atom is Phosphorus (P) - In PCl5, the central atom is Phosphorus (P)
02

Determine valence electrons of central atom

Next, we need to determine the number of valence electrons for the central atom in each molecule: - Carbon (C) has 4 valence electrons - Oxygen (O) has 6 valence electrons - Nitrogen (N) has 5 valence electrons - Phosphorus (P) has 5 valence electrons
03

Calculate bonding and non-bonding electrons

Now, we need to distribute the valence electrons among bonding and non-bonding electrons. Remember that each bond represents a shared pair of electrons: - In CH4, Carbon shares 4 electrons with 4 Hydrogen atoms, so it has 0 non-bonding electrons. - In H2O, Oxygen shares 4 electrons with 2 Hydrogen atoms, so it has 2 non-bonding electrons. - In NH3, Nitrogen shares 6 electrons with 3 Hydrogen atoms, so it has 2 non-bonding electrons. - In PCl3, Phosphorus shares 6 electrons with 3 Chlorine atoms, so it has 2 non-bonding electrons. - In PCl5, Phosphorus shares 10 electrons with 5 Chlorine atoms, so it has 0 non-bonding electrons.
04

Determine number of lone pair electrons

Finally, we can now determine the number of lone pair electrons by dividing the non-bonding electrons by 2, as each lone pair consists of 2 electrons: - In CH4, there are 0 lone pairs of electrons on Carbon - In H2O, there is 1 lone pair of electrons on Oxygen - In NH3, there is 1 lone pair of electrons on Nitrogen. - In PCl3, there is 1 lone pair of electrons on Phosphorus - In PCl5, there are 0 lone pairs of electrons on Phosphorus. So, the number of lone pairs of electrons on the central atoms are: 0 for CH4, 1 for H2O, 1 for NH3, 1 for PCl3, and 0 for PCl5.

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