SOCl2 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.

SOCl2 lewis structure has a Sulfur atom (S) at the center which is surrounded by two Chlorine atoms (Cl) and one Oxygen atom (O). There is a double bond between the Sulfur (S) & Oxygen (O) atom and a single bond between the Sulfur (S) and Chlorine (Cl) atoms.

If you haven’t understood anything from the above image of SOCl2 lewis structure, then just stick with me and you will get the detailed step by step explanation on drawing a lewis structure of SOCl2.

So let’s move to the steps of drawing the lewis structure of SOCl2.

Steps of drawing SOCl2 lewis structure

Step 1: Find the total valence electrons in SOCl2 molecule

In order to find the total valence electrons in a SOCl2 molecule, first of all you should know the valence electrons present in sulfur atom, oxygen atom as well as chlorine 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 sulfur, oxygen as well as chlorine using a periodic table.

Total valence electrons in SOCl2 molecule

→ Valence electrons given by sulfur atom:

Sulfur is a group 16 element on the periodic table. ^[1] Hence the valence electrons present in sulfur is 6.

You can see the 6 valence electrons present in the sulfur 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 chlorine atom:

Chlorine is group 17 element on the periodic table. ^[3] Hence the valence electrons present in chlorine is 7.

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

Hence, 

Total valence electrons in SOCl2 molecule = valence electrons given by 1 sulfur atom + valence electrons given by 1 oxygen atom + valence electrons given by 2 chlorine atoms = 6 + 6 + 7(2) = 26.

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 SOCl2 and it contains sulfur atom (S), oxygen atom (O) and chlorine atoms (Cl).

You can see the electronegativity values of sulfur atom (S), oxygen atom (O) and chlorine atoms (Cl) in the above periodic table.

If we compare the electronegativity values of sulfur atom (S), oxygen atom (O) and chlorine atoms (Cl) then the sulfur atom is less electronegative.

So here the sulfur atom is the center atom and the oxygen & chlorine atoms are the outside atoms.

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

Now in the SOCl2 molecule, you have to put the electron pairs between the sulfur (S) & oxygen (O) atom and between the sulfur (S) & chlorine (Cl) atoms.

This indicates that these atoms are chemically bonded with each other in a SOCl2 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 atoms.

Here in the sketch of SOCl2 molecule, you can see that the outer atoms are oxygen atom and chlorine atoms.

These oxygen atom and chlorine 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 SOCl2 molecule.

The SOCl2 molecule has a total of 26 valence electrons and out of these, only 24 valence electrons are used in the above sketch.

So the number of electrons which are left = 26 – 24 = 2.

You have to put these 2 electrons on the central sulfur atom in the above sketch of SOCl2 molecule.

Now let’s proceed to the next step.

Step 5: Check the octet on the central atom

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

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

You can see from the above picture that the sulfur atom is forming an octet. That means it has 8 electrons.

And hence the central sulfur atom is stable.

Now let’s proceed to the final step to check whether the lewis structure of SOCl2 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 SOCl2.

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 sulfur (S) atom, oxygen (O) atom as well as chlorine (Cl) atoms present in the SOCl2 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 SOCl2 molecule in the image given below.

For Sulfur (S) atom:
Valence electrons = 6 (because sulfur is in group 16)
Bonding electrons = 6
Nonbonding electrons = 2

For Oxygen (O) atom:
Valence electrons = 6 (because oxygen is in group 16)
Bonding electrons = 2
Nonbonding electrons = 6

For Chlorine (Cl) atom:
Valence electron = 7 (because chlorine is in group 17)
Bonding electrons = 2
Nonbonding electrons = 6

From the above calculations of formal charge, you can see that the sulfur (S) atom has +1 charge and the oxygen (O) atom has -1 charge.

Because of this reason, the above obtained lewis structure of SOCl2 is not stable.

So we have to minimize these charges by shifting the electron pair towards the sulfur atom.

After shifting the electron pair from oxygen atom to sulfur atom, the lewis structure of SOCl2 becomes more stable.

In the above lewis dot structure of SOCl2, you can also represent each bonding electron pair (:) as a single bond (|). By doing so, you will get the following lewis structure of SOCl2.

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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