What is the Lewis dot diagram for H_2OH2O?

1 Answer
anor277
May 30, 2017

Well we have 6 valence electrons from the oxygen atom......

Explanation:

And 2 valence electrons from the hydrogen atom. And thus we have to distribute 4 electron pairs around the central oxygen atom. VESPER predicts that these 4 electron pairs will assume the shape of a tetrahedron:

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The "electronic geometry"electronic geometry is tetrahedral to a first approximation. The "molecular geometry"molecular geometry is bent with /_H-O-H~=104.5^@∠H−O−H≅104.5∘; the (non-bonding) lone pairs are closer to the oxygen atom, and these tend to compress /_H-O-H∠H−O−H down from the ideal tetrahedral angle of 109.5^@109.5∘.

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