COBr2 Lewis Structure in 6 Steps (With Images)

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

Let me explain the above image in short.

COBr2 lewis structure has a Carbon atom (C) at the center which is surrounded by two Bromine atoms (Br) and one Oxygen atom (O). There is a double bond between the Carbon (C) & Oxygen (O) atom and a single bond between the Carbon (C) and Bromine (Br) atoms.

If you haven’t understood anything from the above image of COBr2 lewis structure, then just stick with me and you will get the detailed step by step explanation on drawing a lewis structure of COBr2.

So let’s move to the steps of drawing the lewis structure of COBr2.

Steps of drawing COBr2 lewis structure

Step 1: Find the total valence electrons in COBr2 molecule

In order to find the total valence electrons in a COBr2 molecule, first of all you should know the valence electrons present in carbon atom, oxygen atom as well as bromine 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, oxygen as well as bromine using a periodic table.

Total valence electrons in COBr2 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 oxygen atom:

Oxygen is group 16 element on the periodic table. ^[2] 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.

→ Valence electrons given by bromine atom:

Bromine is a group 17 element on the periodic table. ^[3] Hence the valence electrons present in bromine is 7.

You can see the 7 valence electrons present in the bromine atom as shown in the above image.

Hence, 

Total valence electrons in COBr2 molecule = valence electrons given by 1 carbon atom + valence electrons given by 1 oxygen atom + valence electrons given by 2 bromine atoms = 4 + 6 + 7(2) = 24.

Step 2: Select the central atom

For selecting the center atom, you have to remember that the atom which is less electronegative remains at the center.

Now here the given molecule is COBr2 and it contains carbon atom (C), oxygen atom (O) and bromine atoms (Br).

You can see the electronegativity values of carbon atom (C), oxygen atom (O) and bromine atoms (Br) in the above periodic table.

If we compare the electronegativity values of carbon atom (C), oxygen atom (O) and bromine atoms (Br) then the carbon atom is less electronegative.

So here the carbon atom is the center atom and the oxygen & bromine atoms are the outside atoms.

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

Now in the COBr2 molecule, you have to put the electron pairs between the carbon (C) & oxygen (O) atom and between the carbon (C) & bromine (Br) atoms.

This indicates that these atoms are chemically bonded with each other in a COBr2 molecule.

Step 4: Make the outer atoms stable

Now in this step, you have to check the stability of the outer atoms.

Here in the sketch of COBr2 molecule, you can see that the outer atoms are oxygen atom and bromine atoms.

These oxygen atom and bromine atoms are forming an octet and hence they are stable.

Also, in step 1 we have calculated the total number of valence electrons present in the COBr2 molecule.

The COBr2 molecule has a total 24 valence electrons and all these valence electrons are used in the above sketch of COBr2.

Hence there are no remaining electron pairs to be kept on the central atom. 

So now let’s proceed to the next step.

Step 5: Check the octet on the central atom. If it does not have octet, then shift the lone pair to form a double bond or triple bond.

In this step, you have to check whether the central carbon atom (C) is stable or not.

In order to check the stability of the central carbon (C) atom, we have to check whether it is forming an octet or not.

Unfortunately, the carbon atom is not forming an octet here. Carbon has only 6 electrons and it is unstable.

Now to make this carbon atom stable, you have to shift the electron pair from the outer oxygen atom so that the carbon atom can have 8 electrons (i.e octet).

After shifting this electron pair, the central carbon atom will get 2 more electrons and thus its total electrons will become 8.

You can see from the above picture that the carbon atom is forming an octet as it has 8 electrons.

Now let’s proceed to the final step to check whether the lewis structure of COBr2 is stable or not.

Step 6: Check the stability of lewis structure

Now you have come to the final step in which you have to check the stability of lewis structure of COBr2.

The stability of lewis structure can be checked by using a concept of formal charge.

In short, now you have to find the formal charge on carbon (C) atom, oxygen (O) atom as well as bromine (Br) atoms present in the COBr2 molecule.

For calculating the formal charge, you have to use the following formula;

Formal charge = Valence electrons – (Bonding electrons)/2 – Nonbonding electrons

You can see the number of bonding electrons and nonbonding electrons for each atom of COBr2 molecule in the image given below.

For Carbon (C) atom:
Valence electrons = 4 (because carbon is in group 14)
Bonding electrons = 8
Nonbonding electrons = 0

For Oxygen (O) atom:
Valence electrons = 6 (because oxygen is in group 16)
Bonding electrons = 4
Nonbonding electrons = 4

For Bromine (Br) atom:
Valence electron = 7 (because bromine is in group 17)
Bonding electrons = 2
Nonbonding electrons = 6

From the above calculations of formal charge, you can see that the carbon (C) atom, oxygen (O) atom as well as bromine (Br) atoms have a “zero” formal charge.

This indicates that the above lewis structure of COBr2 is stable and there is no further change in the above structure of COBr2.

In the above lewis dot structure of COBr2, you can also represent each bonding electron pair (:) as a single bond (|). By doing so, you will get the following lewis structure of COBr2.

(Note: In step 5, if we had moved the electron pair from the bromine atom, then there will be +1 and -1 charges on bromine and oxygen respectively. But here we move the electron pair from the oxygen atom, which gives the more stable structure (having “zero” charges on all the atoms.))

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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