Question

Will give medal! How many non-bonding electrons does phosphorous have?

Answer 1

in what compound?

Answer 2

@aaronq I don't know, I wasn't given anymore information,only the question above.

Answer 3

He's right, we'd need to know the molecule to be able to say how many nonbonding electrons there are. In some cases phosphorus can act like nitrogen and form three bonds, leaving 2 nonbonding electrons in the valence shell and another 10 in the other shells (12 total). But in other cases, phosphorus gets all weird and can actually form 5 different bonds, meaning there are only going to be 10 nonbonding electrons total since all the valence electrons are involved in bonds. It depends on the atoms and types of bonds we're talking about, so knowing the molecule is important.

Answer 4

the valence electrons can all participate in bond formation depending on the atom with which the bond is being formed. the total electrons in phosphorus are 15 and can be written as \[1s^2 2s^2 2p^63s^23p^3\]the 10 electrons (2+2+6) \[1s^2 2s^2 2p^6\]do not form any bonds and thus are always non-bonding.

while the 5 electrons (2+3) \[3s^23p^3\] are sometimes involved in bond formation \[sp^3d- hybridization\] and for the most common bonds the most easily bonded electrons are the 3 electrons in the 3p orbital.