2 Lewis structures – a starting point
The theories of shared electron pairs in chemical bonding developed by G.N. Lewis may be found in a classic paper; The atom and the molecule published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 1916.
To illustrate this approach let’s look at two examples.
Are the following compounds molecular or non-molecular? Chlorine (Cl2) and sodium chloride (NaCl).
Chlorine (Cl2) is a molecular compound – it is made up of discrete Cl2 molecules.
Sodium chloride (NaCl) a non-molecular compound, is made up of Na+ and Cl- ions.
Starting with Cl2, how do two chlorine atoms form a bond to make a chlorine molecule?
You will look at simple bonding theory applied to chlorine in the next section.