How would you represent potassium and bromine using an electron dot diagram? How about KBr?

1 Answer
Oct 17, 2015

Here's how that would look.

Explanation:

I'm not really sure if you're interested in the electron dot diagram of the potassium and bromine atoms, or of potassium bromide, #"KBr"#, so I'll show you both.

You can use this example to find the electron dot diagram of hydrogen bromide, #"HBr"#.

In order to draw an atom's electron dot diagram, you need to know two things

Start with potassium, #"K"#, which is located in group 1, period 4 of the periodic table. Potassium's electron configuration looks like this

#["K"]: 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 4s^1#

As you can see, potassium has one valence electron located on the fourth energy level in the 4s-orbital.

This means that its electron dot diagram will feature its chemical symbol and one dot, usually placed above the symbol.

![https://chemistryscience10.wikispaces.com/Zaya](useruploads.socratic.org)

Bromine, #"Br"#, is located in group 17, period 4 of the periodic table. Its electron configuration looks like this

#["Br"]: 1s^2 2s^2 2p^6 3s^2 3p^6 4s^2 4p^5#

Bromine has seven valence electrons, all located on the fourth energy level in the 4s and 4p-obitals.

This means that its electron dot diagram will feature its chemical symbol surrounded by seven dots

![http://sci-culture.com/advancedpoll/GCSE/lewis%20diagrams.html](useruploads.socratic.org)

When potassium and bromine come together, the more electronegative bromine will snatch that solitary valence electron from the potassium atom.

This will lead to the formation of the potassium cation, #"K"^(+)#, and the bromide anion, #"Br"^(-)#.

You draw the electron dot diagram by using the charges of the cation and anion.

![users.humboldt.edu)

The resulting ions are placed in between square brackets. Notice that the valence electrons remain visible.