When carbon and oxygen bond, the molecule contains how many pairs of bonding electrons?

1 Answer
anor277
Aug 24, 2017

Well, it might contain three pairs of bonding electrons....

Explanation:

In carbon monoxide, #""^(-):C-=O^+#; clearly there are three bonding pairs.....

In carbon dioxide, #O=C=O#; there are four bonding pairs....

There is also carbon suboxide, #O=C=C=C=O#, there are eight bonding pairs....not that you could put this molecule in a bottle.

And in ethers, #R-O-R#, there are 2 bonding pairs....

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