Question

Simple lewis structure question: if oxygen was single bonded to something, I would have to put a -1 formal charge next to the oxygen. Can't I just instead put a single electron around the oxygen along with the 3 unshared pair electrons and the single bond? Isn't that what it is?

Answer 1

Yea what you are syaing is correct. just put the 3 lone pairs around the O and you will have a formal charge of -1

Answer 2

no because that would violate the octet rule as Oxygen would then have 9 valence electrons.

Answer 3

although some elements can make more than 4 bonds (or have more than 8 electrons, which is called hypervalency)

Answer 4

aaronq: I'm taking this from the context of nitric acid (HNO3). I'm focusing on O that is single bonded to the N.

Answer 5

Here oxygen can't obtain the octet rule, so instead it has a negative formal charge. I'm asking if this is the equivalent of putting an additional single electron on the O instead of labeling it with the -1 charge.

Answer 6

Also, can anyone think of a structure that would include a -2 formal charge on one of the atom?