Lewis Dot Structures

Blog Post #1

Lewis Dot Structures, are diagrams that show the bonding between atoms of a molecule and the lone pairs of electrons that may exist in a molecule.

http://us.static.z-dn.net/files/d4c/abe41042ec07bc2fb42da8aac975e88a.gif

However, when making these electron dot diagrams, there are exceptions for some of the elements.
Boron is a Moron and only requires six electrons to be stable.
Beryllium only requires four electrons to be stable.
Hydrogen and Helium only need two electrons to be stable.

The Octet Rule determines how many electrons are to be placed in the valence shell. No atom can have more than 8 electrons total in their outer shell. However, the central atom can have more than eight electrons in which they call an expanded octet. 
(Elements in Period 3 and up can have expanded octets.)

We also talked about bond length and bond energy which can be summed up in this video.
Bozeman Science-Bond Length and Bond Energy

http://www.science.uwaterloo.ca/~cchieh/cact/fig/ebondh2.gif

Useful Links:
Practice Problems
A Brief Tutorial on Drawing Lewis Dot Structures.