What is the molecular geometry, or shape, of phosphorus trichloride (PC13)?
2 answers:
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Answer:
There are 12 lone pairs of electrons on the molecule.
The formal charge on carbon is zero.
There are 4 covalent bonds within the molecule.
Explanation:
The formal charge(FC) can be calculated by the equation:
FC = V - N - B/2, where V is the number of the valence electrons of the neutral element, N is the number of non-bonding valence electrons, and B is the total of electrons shared in bond.
The Lewis structure is represented in the image below. F and Br have 7 valence electrons and C 4 valence electrons.
So, for C, FC = 4 - 0 - 8/2 = 0
For the both Br, FC = 7 - 6 - 2/1 = 0
For the both F, FC = 7 - 6 - 2/1 = 0
For the structure, we can see that there are 12 lone pairs of electrons on the molecule (3 in each Br and 3 in each F).
All the bonds are covalent because the atoms are sharing a pair of electrons, so there are 4 covalent bonds within the molecule.
