How Does an Electron Dot Diagram Work?
Electron Dot Diagram Electron dot configurations, also called Lewis structures, are used to help scientists build compounds out of chemical elements. For the sake of simplicity, use the two elements hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) in this example. Together, H and O create water, or H20. The dots represent the valence electrons an element has to share during compounding. A valence electron is an electron that is in the outer energy shell and is in search of another element to balance its electric charge. Writing the Electron Dot Configuration jQuery(document).ready(function(){ jQuery(‘#jsArticleStep1 span.image a:first’).attr(‘href’,’http://i.ehow.com/images/GlobalPhoto/Articles/4568765/58496_Full.jpg’); }); Lewis structure for oxygen Writing the electron dot configuration is simple. Determine the number of valence electrons the element has. For H, since it is in the first group of elements, it simply has one valence electron. To express this in Lewis structure format, write the element sym
