Chemistry

Worked example 1

Draw the Lewis structure of carbon tetrachloride.

CCl₄: C has the electron configuration [He]2s²2p² and that of Cl is [Ne]3s²3p⁵, so C has 4 valence electrons and Cl has 7 valence electrons. The molecular framework of CCl₄ is:

Addition of non-bonding pairs gives:

Note that in this structure, all atoms have formal charges of zero, and therefore there is no need to minimise formal charges on carbon and chlorine.