CH3OCH3 Lewis Structure in 4 Steps (With Images)

So you have seen the above image by now, right?

Let me explain the above image in short.

CH3OCH3 lewis structure has a single bond between the Carbon-Oxygen atoms as well as between the Carbon atom (C) and Hydrogen atom (H). There are 2 lone pairs on the Oxygen atom (O).

If you haven’t understood anything from the above image of CH3OCH3 lewis structure, then just stick with me and you will get the detailed step by step explanation on drawing a lewis structure of CH3OCH3.

So let’s move to the steps of drawing the lewis structure of CH3OCH3.

Steps of drawing CH3OCH3 lewis structure

Step 1: Find the total valence electrons in CH3OCH3 molecule

In order to find the total valence electrons in a CH3OCH3 molecule, first of all you should know the valence electrons present in carbon atom, hydrogen atom as well as oxygen atom.
(Valence electrons are the electrons that are present in the outermost orbit of any atom.)

Here, I’ll tell you how you can easily find the valence electrons of carbon, hydrogen as well as oxygen using a periodic table.

Total valence electrons in CH3OCH3 molecule

→ Valence electrons given by carbon atom:

Carbon is group 14 element on the periodic table. ^[1] Hence the valence electrons present in carbon is 4.

You can see the 4 valence electrons present in the carbon atom as shown in the above image.

→ Valence electrons given by hydrogen atom:

Hydrogen is group 1 element on the periodic table. ^[2] Hence the valence electron present in hydrogen is 1.

You can see that only 1 valence electron is present in the hydrogen atom as shown in the above image.

→ Valence electrons given by oxygen atom:

Oxygen is group 16 element on the periodic table. ^[3] Hence the valence electrons present in oxygen is 6.

You can see the 6 valence electrons present in the oxygen atom as shown in the above image.

Hence, 

Total valence electrons in CH3OCH3 molecule = valence electrons given by 2 carbon atom + valence electrons given by 6 hydrogen atoms + valence electrons given by 1 oxygen atom = 4(2) + 1(6) + 6 = 20.

Step 2: Prepare the rough sketch

To draw the rough sketch of CH3OCH3 molecule, just look at its chemical formula only. You can see that there is an oxygen atom (O) at the center and it is surrounded by CH3 on both sides.

So let’s draw a rough sketch for the same.

Step 3: Connect each atoms by putting an electron pair between them

Now in the CH3OCH3 molecule, you have to put the electron pairs between the carbon (C) & oxygen (O) atom and between the carbon (C) & hydrogen (H) atoms.

This indicates that these atoms are chemically bonded with each other in a CH3OCH3 molecule.

Step 4: Place the remaining valence electrons pair on the central atom

In the above sketch of CH3OCH3, you can see that the outer atoms are hydrogen atoms and they are stable as they form a duplet.

Now, in step 1 we have calculated the total number of valence electrons present in the CH3OCH3 molecule.

The CH3OCH3 molecule has a total 20 valence electrons and out of these, only 16 valence electrons are used in the above sketch.

So the number of electrons which are left = 20 – 16 = 4.

You have to put these 4 electrons on the central oxygen atom in the above sketch of CH3OCH3 molecule.

Now you can see that all the atoms are stable in the above sketch (because hydrogen atoms are forming duplets and the carbon as well as oxygen atom are forming an octet.)

Thus the above lewis structure of CH3OCH3 is stable.

In the above lewis dot structure of CH3OCH3, you can also represent each bonding electron pair (:) as a single bond (|). By doing so, you will get the following lewis structure of CH3OCH3.

I hope you have completely understood all the above steps.

For more practice and better understanding, you can try other lewis structures listed below.

Try (or at least See) these lewis structures for better understanding:

About author

Jay Rana

Jay is an educator and has helped more than 100,000 students in their studies by providing simple and easy explanations on different science-related topics. He is a founder of Pediabay and is passionate about helping students through his easily digestible explanations.

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