How can I draw the Lewis structure for ClO2-?

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Answer 1 · 2014-07-15T17:15:23

Here's how I would do it.

You can find the procedure here.

For ${ClO}_{2}^{-}, Cl$ $"ClO"_2^"-", "Cl"$ is the less electronegative atom. So, $Cl$ $"Cl"$ is the central atom

The skeleton structure is $O-Cl-O .$ $"O-Cl-O".$

The trial structure is

Trial structure

You have 20 valence electrons in your trial structure.

The valence electrons you have available are: $1 Cl + 2 O + 1 e = 1 \times 7 + 2 \times 6 + 1 = 20$ $"1 Cl + 2 O + 1 e" = 1×7 + 2×6 + 1 = 20$ .

Hence, the trial structure has the correct number of electrons.

The formal charge on each atom is:

$Cl = 7 - 4 - ½ (4) = + 1; O = 6 - 6 - ½ (2) = -1$ $"Cl" = 7 - 4 - ½(4) = +1; "O" = 6 – 6 - ½(2) = "-1"$

Every atom has a formal charge.

We can reduce the number of formal charges by moving a lone pair of electrons from $O$ $"O"$ to form a $Cl=O$ $"Cl=O"$ double bond.

This gives us two new structures in which one $O$ $"O"$ atom has $FC = -1$ $"FC = -1"$ and the other atoms have $FC = 0$ $"FC = 0"$ :

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The actual structure is nine of these. Rather, it is a resonance hybrid of them both

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