Lewis Electron Dot Structures of Hydrogen Cyanide (HCN) and Nitronium Ion (NO2+)
A simple procedure for drawing Lewis dot structures was given in a previous post entitled “Lewis Structures and the Octet Rule”.
Several worked examples relevant to this procedure were given in previous posts please see the index page Lewis Structures & the Octet Rule - Theory & Examples . Let us examine the case of nitronium ion NO2+and hydrogen cyanide HCN.
Let us consider the case of NO2+. The Lewis dot structures of NO2+ with formal charges are as follows:
Step 1: The central atom will be the N atom since it is the less electronegative. Connect the N with the O atoms with single bonds:
Step 2: Calculate the # of electrons in p bonds (pi bonds, multiple bonds) using formula (1) in the article entitled Lewis Structures and the Octet Rule.
Where n in this case is 3 since NO2+ consists of three atoms. Where V = (6 + 5 + 6) - 1 = 16 Therefore, P = 6n + 2 - V = 6 * 3 + 2 - 16 = 4
Therefore,there are 4 electrons (pi electrons) in NO2+ and 2 double bonds must be added to the structure of Step 1 or 1 triple bond.