Question

The best lewis structure for sulfuric acid has zero formal charges, sulfur as the central atom, and no bonds between s and h. how many single and double bonds, respectively, are there in this lewis structure?

Answer 1

Explanation:

Sulfuric acid also known as $H_{2}SO_{4}$ contains two hydrogen atoms, one sulfur atom and four oxygen atoms.

And it is given that the formal charge on a sulfuric acid molecule is zero. So, sulfur atom is bonded with two oxygen atoms through a double bond on each oxygen atom. The sulfur is also attached to another two oxygen atoms through a single bond for each oxygen atom.

Further, the each oxygen with single bond is attached to one hydrogen atom each.

Answer 2

If we are to draw the sulfuric acid structure based on Lewis it would look like:

                       O

                      ll

                O = S – O –H

                       l

                      O

                       l

                       H

 

So from this, we can see that there are 2 double bonds (O = S) and 4 single bonds (S – O and O – H).

 

Therefore the answer is:

4 single, 2 double