SiO Lewis Structure in 5 Steps (With Images)

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

Let me explain the above image in short.

SiO lewis structure has one Silicon atom (Si) and one Oxygen atom (O) which contain a triple bond between them. There is 1 lone pair on both the Silicon atom (Si) as well as Oxygen atom (O).

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

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

Steps of drawing SiO lewis structure

Step 1: Find the total valence electrons in SiO molecule

In order to find the total valence electrons in SiO molecule, first of all you should know the valence electrons present in a single silicon 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 silicon as well as oxygen using a periodic table.

Total valence electrons in SiO molecule

→ Valence electrons given by silicon atom:

Silicon is a group 14 element on the periodic table. ^[1] Hence the valence electrons present in silicon is 4.

You can see the 4 valence electrons present in the silicon 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.

Hence, 

Total valence electrons in SiO molecule = valence electrons given by 1 silicon atom + valence electrons given by 1 oxygen atom = 4 + 6 = 10.

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 SiO. It has only two atoms, so you can select any of the atoms as a center atom.

Let’s assume the silicon atom as a central atom.
(You should assume the less electronegative atom as a center atom).

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

Now in the SiO molecule, you have to put the electron pairs between the silicon atom (Si) and oxygen atom (O).

This indicates that the silicon (Si) atom and oxygen (O) atom are chemically bonded with each other in a SiO molecule.

Step 4: Make the outer atoms stable. Place the remaining valence electrons pair on the central atom.

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

Here in the sketch of SiO molecule, we have assumed the silicon atom as a center atom. So the oxygen is the outer atom.

Hence you have to make the oxygen atom stable.

You can see in the below image that the oxygen atom is forming an octet and hence it is stable.

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

The SiO molecule has a total 10 valence electrons and out of these, only 8 valence electrons are used in the above sketch.

So the number of electrons which are left = 10 – 8 = 2.

You have to put these 2 electrons on the silicon atom in the above sketch of SiO molecule.

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 silicon atom (Si) is stable or not.

In order to check the stability of this silicon (Si) atom, we have to check whether it is forming an octet or not.

Unfortunately, this silicon atom is not forming an octet here. Silicon has only 4 electrons and it is unstable.

Now to make this silicon atom stable, you have to shift the electron pair from the oxygen atom.

But after shifting one electron pair, the silicon atom is still not forming an octet as it has only 6 electrons.

So again we have to shift one more electron pair from the oxygen atom.

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

You can see from the above picture that the silicon atom as well as oxygen atom both are forming an octet.

And hence the above lewis dot structure of SiO molecule is stable.

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

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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