Covalent bonds lone pairs

Within a covalent Lewis structure, what is the difference between lone pair and bonding pair electrons ... 

What is the Lewis structure for a molecule of the covalently bonded compound nitrogen triiodide (NI3), given that all the bonds are single State how many single covalent bonds there are and how many lone pairs each bonded atom has. 

Explain the important distinctions between (a) ionic and covalent bonds (b) lone-pair and bond-pair electrons (c) molecular geometry and electron-group geometry (d) bond dipole and resultant dipole moment (e) polar molecule and nonpolar molecule. 

The shapes of covalent compounds are determined by the tendency for bonding pairs to be as far apart as possible whilst lone pairs have a greater effect than bonding pairs (VSEPR theory). 

Unlike the forces between ions which are electrostatic and without direction, covalent bonds are directed in space. For a simple molecule or covalently bonded ion made up of typical elements the shape is nearly always decided by the number of bonding electron pairs and the number of lone pairs (pairs of electrons not involved in bonding) around the central metal atom, which arrange themselves so as to be as far apart as possible because of electrostatic repulsion between the electron pairs. Table 2.8 shows the essential shape assumed by simple molecules or ions with one central atom X. Carbon is able to form a great many covalently bonded compounds in which there are chains of carbon atoms linked by single covalent bonds. In each case where the carbon atoms are joined to four other atoms the essential orientation around each carbon atom is tetrahedral. 

The element before carbon in Period 2, boron, has one electron less than carbon, and forms many covalent compounds of type BX3 where X is a monovalent atom or group. In these, the boron uses three sp hybrid orbitals to form three trigonal planar bonds, like carbon in ethene, but the unhybridised 2p orbital is vacant, i.e. it contains no electrons. In the nitrogen atom (one more electron than carbon) one orbital must contain two electrons—the lone pair hence sp hybridisation will give four tetrahedral orbitals, one containing this lone pair. Oxygen similarly hybridised will have two orbitals occupied by lone pairs, and fluorine, three. Hence the hydrides of the elements from carbon to fluorine have the structures... 

The covalently bonded oxygen atom still has two lone pairs of electrons and can act as an electron pair donor. It rarely donates both pairs (to achieve 4-coordination) and usually only one donor bond is formed. A water molecule, for example, can donate to a proton, forming H30, and diethyl ether can donate to an acceptor such as boron trifluoride ... 

In xenon difluoride, the electronic structure shows three lone pairs around the xenon, and two covalent bonds to the two fluorine atoms hence it is believed that here xenon is using one p (doublepear) orbital to form two bonds ... 

These interactions are most commonly observed for divalent chalcogen atoms and the nitrogen atom (the electron donor D) lies within the X-E-Y (E = S, Se, Te) plane, preferably along the extension of one of the covalent bonds as in 15.3. This anisotropy is a clear indication that these short E N contacts have some bonding character, i.e., they are subject to the geometric restrictions of orbital overlap. Eor example, in the diselenide 15.4 the nitrogen lone pairs are clearly oriented towards the Se-Se linkage. ... 

A common interpretation of the interaction of chalcogens with nucleophiles considers donation of electron density from a lone pair on the donor atom into the o- (E-X) orbital (Figure 15.1). As the degree of covalency increases, a hypervalent three-centre four-electron bond is formed. Real systems fall somewhere between secondary interactions and hypervalent (three centre - four electron) bonds. The two extremes can be distinguished by the correlation of X-E and E D distances.In the hypervalent case both bond distances decrease simultaneously, whereas in the secondary bond the distances are anticorrelated. This concept has been applied in a study of selenoquinones 15.17 (R = Ph, Me) with short Se 0 contacts,for... 

The same is true for the nitrogen atom in ammonia, which has three covalent N-H bonds and two nonbonding electrons (a lone pair). Atomic nitrogen has five valence electrons, and the ammonia nitrogen also has five—one in each of three shared N-H bonds plus two in the lone pair. Thus, the nitrogen atom in ammonia has no formal charge. 

In principle, any molecule or anion with an unshared pair of electrons can act as a Lewis base. In other words, it can donate a lone pair to a metal cation to form a coordinate covalent bond. In practice, a ligand usually contains an atom of one of die more electronegative elements (C, N, O, S, F, Cl, Br, I). Several hundred different ligands are known. Those most commonly encountered in general chemistry are NH3 and HzO molecules and CN , Cl-, and OH- ions. 

Until about 20 years ago, the valence bond model discussed in Chapter 7 was widely used to explain electronic structure and bonding in complex ions. It assumed that lone pairs of electrons were contributed by ligands to form covalent bonds with metal atoms. This model had two major deficiencies. It could not easily explain the magnetic properties of complex ions. 

The Lewis structure of a molecule shows atoms by their chemical symbols, covalent bonds by lines, and lone pairs by pairs of dots. For example, the Lewis structure of HF is H - F . We shall see that Lewis structures are a great help in... 

Each atom in a polyatomic molecule completes its octet (or duplet for hydrogen) by sharing pairs of electrons with its immediate neighbors. Each shared pair counts as one covalent bond and is represented by a line between the two atoms. A Lewis structure does not portray the shape of a polyatomic molecule it simply displays which atoms are bonded together and which atoms have lone pairs. 

The boron atom in BF5 can complete its octet if an additional atom or ion with a lone pair of electrons forms a bond by providing both electrons. A bond in which both electrons come from one of the atoms is called a coordinate covalent bond. For example, the tetrafluoroborate anion, BF4 (31), forms when boron trifluoride is passed over a meral fluoride. In this anion, the formation of a coordinate covalent bond with a fluoride ion gives the B atom an octet. Another example of a coordinate covalent bond is that formed when boron trifluoride reacts with ammonia ... 

The Lewis structure of the product, a white molecular solid, is shown in (32). In this reaction, the lone pair on the nitrogen atom of ammonia, H3N , can be regarded as completing boron s octet in BF3 by forming a coordinate covalent bond. 

Boron trichloride, a colorless, reactive gas of BC13 molecules, behaves chemically like BF3. However, the trichloride of aluminum, which is in the same group as boron, forms dimers, linked pairs of molecules. Aluminum chloride is a volatile white solid that vaporizes at 180°C to a gas of Al2Cl6 molecules. These molecules survive in the gas up to about 200°C and only then fall apart into A1C13 molecules. The Al,CI6 molecule exists because a Cl atom in one AlCI, molecule uses one of its lone pairs to form a coordinate covalent bond to the Al atom in a neighboring AICI molecule (33). This arrangement can occur in aluminum chloride hut not boron trichloride because the atomic radius of Al is bigger than that of B. 

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