Chapter 6, Problem 6.77QP

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation: The Lewis structures of methyl isocyanate should be determined.

Concept Introduction:

• Lewis structures are diagrams that represent the chemical bonding of covalently bonded molecules and coordination compounds.
• It is also known as Lewis dot structures which represents the bonding between atoms of a molecule and the lone pairs of electrons that may exist in the molecule.
• The Lewis structure is based on the concept of the octet rule so that the electrons shared in each atom should have 8 electrons in its outer shell.

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation: The formal charges of methyl isocyanate should be determined.

Concept Introduction

A formal charge (FC) is the charge assigned to an atom in a molecule, irrespective of relative electronegativity by thinking that electrons in all chemical bonds are shared equally among atoms.

This method is used to identify the most probable Lewis structures if more than one possibility exists for a compound.

The Lewis structure with formal charge on each of the atoms close to zero is taken as the most plausible structure.

Formal charge of an atom can be determined by the given formula.

$\text{Formal}\text{charge}\left(\text{F}\text{C}\right)\text{=}\left(\begin{array}{l}\text{no}\text{.of}\text{valence}\\ \text{electron}\text{in}\text{atom}\end{array}\right)-\frac{\text{1}}{\text{2}}\left(\begin{array}{l}\text{no}\text{.of}\text{bonding}\\ \text{electrons}\end{array}\right)-\left(\begin{array}{l}\text{no}\text{.of}\text{non-bonding}\\ \text{electrons}\end{array}\right)$