Question

Given a formula for oxygen: What is the total number of electrons shared between the atoms represented in this formula

Answer 1

Answer is: the total number of electrons shared between the atoms is four.

Molecule of oxygen is nonpolar because double linear bonds (O=O).

Oxygen (O) is an element with atomic number 8, it means it has eight protons and eight electrons, so atom has neutral charge. Oxygen is a nonmetal.

Electron configuration of oxygen atom: ₈O 1s² 2s² 2p⁴.

Oxygen atom has six valence electrons, so it is in 16 group of Periodic table of elements.

Two valence electrons from both oxygen atoms form double bond (O::O) at oxygen molecule.

Answer 2

Answer:

Formula for oxygen is $O_{2}$ and total number of electrons shared between the atoms are 4

Explanation:

Oxygen is a diatomic molecule. Hence two oxygen atoms combine to produce one oxygen molecule.

Now, number of valence electron in a oxygen atom is 6. So total number of valence electrons used to form oxygen molecule are 12.

To draw a Lewis structure for $O_{2}$, octet rule should be fulfilled by both oxygen atoms.

According to octet rule, an atom should have 8 electrons in its valence shell

Lewis structure for oxygen molecule has been attached below.

Here electrons shared by oxygen atoms are represented as vertical line. These are called bonding electrons.

Unshared electrons are represented by dot. These are called lone pairs.

Here one bond is formed by sharing two electrons.

As there are two bonds between two oxygen atoms therefore total number of shared electrons between oxygen atoms are 4.