Question

White phosphorus is composed of tetrahedral molecules of P4 in which every P atom is connected to three other P atoms. In the Lewis structure of P4, there are 1. 6 bonding pairs and 4 lone pairs of electrons. 2. 6 bonding pairs and no lone pairs of electrons. 3. 5 bonding pairs and 4 lone pairs of electrons. 4. 3 bonding pairs and 4 lone pairs of electrons. 5. 6 bonding pairs and 2 lone pairs of electrons.

Answer 1

Answer:

In the Lewis structure of P4 there are 6 bonding pairs and 4 lone pairs of electrons.

Explanation:

The structure of tetrahedral molecule of P4 is provided below.

Each phosphorus atom has 5 valence electrons out of which 3 electrons involve in bonding and the rest 2 electrons exist as a lone pair that does not involve in bonding.Hence each phosphorus atom has one lone pair.In P4 molecule there are phosphorus atoms and hence 4 lone pairs in total.

As you can see in the figure, each phosphorus atom is bonded to the other three atoms.A bond is formed when two atoms share one electron each and the pair is called bonding pair.

From the figure we can see that there are 6 bonds in total.Each bond consist of one bonding pair of electrons and hence in total there are 6 bonding pairs of electrons.

Hence in a P4 molecule there are six bonding pairs and 4 lone pairs of electrons.