H2Te Lewis structure

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H2Te Lewis Structure
H2Te Lewis structure

H2Te (hydrogen telluride) has two hydrogen atoms and one tellurium atom.

In H2Te Lewis structure, there are two single bonds around the tellurium atom, with two hydrogen atoms attached to it, and on the tellurium atom, there are two lone pairs.

Steps

Use these steps to correctly draw the H2Te Lewis structure:

#1 First draw a rough sketch
#2 Mark lone pairs on the atoms
#3 Calculate and mark formal charges on the atoms, if required

Let’s discuss each step in more detail.

#1 First draw a rough sketch

  • First, determine the total number of valence electrons
Periodic table

In the periodic table, hydrogen lies in group 1, and tellurium lies in group 16.

Hence, hydrogen has one valence electron and tellurium has six valence electrons.

Since H2Te has two hydrogen atoms and one tellurium atom, so…

Valence electrons of two hydrogen atoms = 1 × 2 = 2
Valence electrons of one tellurium atom = 6 × 1 = 6

And the total valence electrons = 2 + 6 = 8

  • Second, find the total electron pairs

We have a total of 8 valence electrons. And when we divide this value by two, we get the value of total electron pairs.

Total electron pairs = total valence electrons ÷ 2

So the total electron pairs = 8 ÷ 2 = 4

  • Third, determine the central atom

Here hydrogen can not be the central atom. Because the central atom is bonded with at least two other atoms, and hydrogen has only one electron in its last shell, so it can not make more than one bond.

Hence, here we have to assume that the central atom is tellurium.

Therefore, place tellurium in the center and hydrogens on either side.

  • And finally, draw the rough sketch
H2Te Lewis Structure (Step 1)
Rough sketch of H2Te Lewis structure

#2 Mark lone pairs on the atoms

Here, we have a total of 4 electron pairs. And two Te — H bonds are already marked. So we have to only mark the remaining two electron pairs as lone pairs on the sketch.

Also remember that tellurium is a period 5 element, so it can keep more than 8 electrons in its last shell. And hydrogen is a period 1 element, so it can not keep more than 2 electrons in its last shell.

Always start to mark the lone pairs from outside atoms. Here, the outside atoms are hydrogens. But no need to mark on hydrogen, because each hydrogen has already two electrons.

So for tellurium, there are two lone pairs.

Mark the lone pair on the sketch as follows:

H2Te Lewis Structure (Step 2)
Lone pairs marked, and got the stable Lewis structure of H2Te

#3 Calculate and mark formal charges on the atoms, if required

Use the following formula to calculate the formal charges on atoms:

Formal charge = valence electrons – nonbonding electrons – ½ bonding electrons

For each hydrogen atom, formal charge = 1 – 0 – ½ (2) = 0

For tellurium atom, formal charge = 6 – 4 – ½ (4) = 0

Here, both hydrogen and tellurium atoms do not have charges, so no need to mark the charges.

In the above structure, you can see that the central atom (tellurium) forms an octet, and each hydrogen forms a duet. Hence, the octet rule and duet rule are satisfied.

Therefore, this structure is the stable Lewis structure of H2Te.

Next: PBr4+ Lewis structure

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Deep

Learnool.com was founded by Deep Rana, who is a mechanical engineer by profession and a blogger by passion. He has a good conceptual knowledge on different educational topics and he provides the same on this website. He loves to learn something new everyday and believes that the best utilization of free time is developing a new skill.

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