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Chemistry 17 Online
OpenStudy (anonymous):

how many valence electrons does pocl3 have?

OpenStudy (espex):

Draw the lewis structure and count the lone pairs, assuming you only care about the ones not used in bonding.

OpenStudy (anonymous):

phosphorus has 5 valence electrons, oxygen has 6, and chlorine has 7. That's a total of 5+6+3*7 = 32. no need to draw it.

OpenStudy (anonymous):

I think it's worth mentioning that POCl3 is a good example of where lewis structures break down. Is the O single bonded or double bonded to P? Is the formal charge on P zero or 1? In reality it's neither. you need quantum mechanics to predict what it actually looks like. Lewis introducted lewis structures in 1916, before quantum mechanics was even discovered.

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