Phosphorus oxychloride !!!

Started by ramin123
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ramin123

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A q on top score asked what were the total valence elctrons in Phosphorus oxychloride.

My problem was not knowing how to count the valence electrons-- BUT what Phosphorus oxychloride actually looked like!

What do I do in these type of q? How do you figure out what it looks like?
 
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Hmm, well when I first looked at it, a little bit of orgo nomenclature came into mind. Since P is the least electronegative atom, I would have that be my central atom. From there I would find out how many bonds Phosphorous can make, which is 5. Then fill up the bonds so you would have P double bonded to O, and the rest of the 3 bonds taken up by chlorine.

I'm not saying this a sure fire way to get the formula, but if I had to guess, this is the way I would go about it. Anyone else have any ideas, would be appreciated.
 
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ramin123 said:
Thnx 4 your help. Anyone else have suggestions?
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Well first of all it's important to know that oxy or oxo just means a double bonded oxygen functional group.

Second of all as already mentioned P would be the central atom since it bonds to most electrons.

oxychloride together just means that oxygen and chloride is bonded to another element and since it doesnt say anything about phosphorus having negative charges I would just assume that Phosphorus uses up all its valence electrons (5) to bind to oxygen and 3 chlorides to make the molecule neutral.
 
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