Commonly Tested Lewis Structures

We draw Lewis Structures to predict:

-the shape of a molecule.

-the reactivity of a molecule and how it might interact with other molecules.

-the physical properties of a molecule such as boiling point, surface tension, etc.

Drawing the Lewis Structure for XeF₄

Video: Drawing the Lewis Structure for XeF₄

For the XeF4 Lewis structure we first count the valence electrons for the XeF4 molecule using the periodic table. Once we know how many valence electrons there are in XeF4 we can distribute them around the central atom and attempt to fill the outer shells of each atom.

The Lewis structure for XeF4 has a total of 36 valence electrons.

When we are done adding valence electrons we check each atom to see if it has an octet (full outer shell). We also need to check to make sure we only used the number of available valence electrons we calculated earlier (no more, no less).

The Lewis structure for XeF4 is a bit tougher since you have to take formal charges into account to find the best Lewis structure for the molecule. Remember that Xenon can have more than 8 valence electrons.

It is helpful if you:

• Try to draw the XeF₄ Lewis structure before watching the video.
• Watch the video and see if you missed any steps or information.
• Try structures similar to XeF₄ for more practice.

List of Lewis Structures

Acetone	BF3	BH4-	BrF5	BrO3-	C2H2	C2H4	ClO-
CH4	ClO2-	ClO2	ClO4-	CO	CS2	H2O	H3O+
HCl	HNO3	I3-	ICl4-	IF5	N2	N3-	NH2OH
NH3	NO2-	NO2	NO3-	O2	OF2	PCl5	PH3
PO33-	PO43-	SCl2	SF4	SF6	SO3	SO42-	XeF2
XeF4