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Chapter 6: Problem 82

Although Lewis dot diagrams are useful in understanding how the valence electrons in a molecule are arranged, what important aspect of the molecule do they neglect to show?

Short Answer

Expert verified
Lewis dot diagrams are useful for representing valence electrons and bonding in a molecule, but they neglect to show the important aspect of the molecule's three-dimensional structure. This includes the shape and spatial arrangement of atoms, which is crucial for understanding properties like polarity, reactivity, stability, and molecular interactions.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding Lewis dot diagrams

Lewis dot diagrams are a simple and effective way to represent the valence electrons in an atom or molecule. They help in visualizing the arrangement of electrons around the atoms, and how these electrons are involved in forming chemical bonds. However, like any other model, they have their limitations.
02

Identifying the limitation

Although Lewis dot diagrams provide useful information about valence electrons and bonding, they fail to show important details about the molecule's three-dimensional (3D) structure. This means that they don't represent the shape of the molecule or the spatial arrangement of the atoms in the molecule.
03

Explaining the importance of the missing aspect

The 3D structure of a molecule is crucial in understanding the molecule's properties, such as polarity, reactivity, and stability. Moreover, the shape of a molecule also plays a critical role in its interactions with other molecules, like in enzyme-substrate binding or drug-target interactions. In summary, Lewis dot diagrams neglect to show the important aspect of the three-dimensional structure (shape and spatial arrangement of atoms) of the molecule.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Given the electronegativities of \(\mathrm{F}\) and \(\mathrm{I}\), what would have to be true for \(\mathrm{IF}_{2}^{+}\) to be nonpolar? The fact that it is polar means what?

Consider the molecule \(\mathrm{SO}_{3}\). (a) Draw the dot diagram. (b) Draw the molecule's three-dimensional shape, and label the numeric value of all bond angles. (c) What is the shape of this molecule? (d) Draw in the individual bond dipole moments. (e) Is the molecule polar? If yes, draw the molecular dipole moment vector.

Draw a combined Lewis dot, molecular-shape diagram for each of the following species. Name each shape, and indicate whether the molecule or ion has an overall dipole moment. If so, draw the dipole moment vector. (a) \(\mathrm{Cl}_{2} \mathrm{O}\) (b) NOF (c) \(\mathrm{PF}_{3}\) (d) \(\mathrm{ICl}_{2}^{+}\) (Hint: See problem statement and hint for Problem 6.69. Hint for \((b): \mathrm{N}=\mathrm{O}\) bonds are common.)

Shown below are dot diagrams for some simple molecules and polyatomic ions: \(: \ddot{B r}-\dot{S}_{\cdots}^{\prime \prime}-\vec{B}_{r}^{\prime \prime}\) (a) Draw the three-dimensional shape for each molecule. Use lines, solid wedges, and dashed wedges as necessary. Indicate the numeric value of all bond angles. (b) For each species, name both the electrongroup geometry around the central atom and the molecular shape.

The atoms in the molecule HSCN are connected in the order given in the formula. (a) Draw the dot diagram. (b) Draw the molecule's three-dimensional shape, and label the numeric value of all bond angles. (c) Draw in the individual bond dipole moments. (d) Is the molecule polar? If yes, draw the molecular dipole moment vector.
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