Passage
Sulfur is the 10th most abundant element on Earth and is an essential element in biological systems. Sulfur can form a variety of chemical compounds and will react with nearly every element except Au, Pt, Ir, Te, and the noble gases. A list of several common inorganic compounds of sulfur is given in Table 1.Table 1 Selected Common Inorganic Sulfur Compounds
Reduction of elemental sulfur by bacteria during anaerobic digestion produces the toxic, foul-smelling gas H₂S. Oxidation of elemental sulfur via combustion or volcanic processes yields gases of SO₂ and SO₃. When dissolved in water, both SO₂ and SO₃ produce acidic solutions, and SO₃ reacts with water to form the acid H₂SO₄. Neutralization of H₂SO₄ can provide a variety of salts, including Na₂SO₄.Elemental sulfur can also react with halogen gases to form sulfur halides such as the industrially important insulator gas SF₆ and the synthetic reagent S₂Cl₂. S₂Cl₂ facilitates the formation of other sulfur compounds. For example, reacting S₂Cl₂ with NH₃ produces the sulfur pnictide S₄N₄.
-Which of the compounds shown below depicts a valid Lewis structure for sulfur dioxide? (Note: Assume that the bonding of each atom involves only s and p orbitals and follows the octet rule.)

Question

Passage
Sulfur is the 10th most abundant element on Earth and is an essential element in biological systems. Sulfur can form a variety of chemical compounds and will react with nearly every element except Au, Pt, Ir, Te, and the noble gases. A list of several common inorganic compounds of sulfur is given in Table 1.Table 1 Selected Common Inorganic Sulfur Compounds

Reduction of elemental sulfur by bacteria during anaerobic digestion produces the toxic, foul-smelling gas H₂S. Oxidation of elemental sulfur via combustion or volcanic processes yields gases of SO₂ and SO₃. When dissolved in water, both SO₂ and SO₃ produce acidic solutions, and SO₃ reacts with water to form the acid H₂SO₄. Neutralization of H₂SO₄ can provide a variety of salts, including Na₂SO₄.Elemental sulfur can also react with halogen gases to form sulfur halides such as the industrially important insulator gas SF₆ and the synthetic reagent S₂Cl₂. S₂Cl₂ facilitates the formation of other sulfur compounds. For example, reacting S₂Cl₂ with NH₃ produces the sulfur pnictide S₄N₄.
-Which of the compounds shown below depicts a valid Lewis structure for sulfur dioxide? (Note: Assume that the bonding of each atom involves only s and p orbitals and follows the octet rule.)

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

11ecba2d_1230_90c9_a3bf_39f7f2280797_MD0008_00 Lewis structures symbolically depict chemical compounds by using chemical symbols to represent atoms and dots placed around the symbols to represent the valence electrons and their bonding configuration. Dots placed between two symbols represent shared electrons involved in bonding whereas dots placed elsewhere around a symbol represent unshared, nonbonding electrons. Each shared pair of electrons forms one bond (often shown as a line). In Lewis structures, dots are placed around the elemental symbols in a way that gives each atom a full valence shell of electrons. Atoms that follow the octet rule use only s and p orbitals and achieve a full valence shell by having eight valence electrons (an octet). Exceptions to the octet rule occur for small atoms that have only an s orbital (H and He) and for larger atoms in Period 3 and beyond when vacant d orbitals are utilized. To draw the Lewis structure of SO₂, the two oxygen atoms can be initially joined by a single bond with S as the central (least electronegative) atom, but to achieve an octet around each atom, an additional pair of nonbonding electrons must be moved to form a double bond (two shared pairs of electrons). (Choice A) Compound 1 has 10 valence electrons around one oxygen atom. Bonding that involves only s and p orbitals and follows the octet rule will have no more than 8 valence electrons around any given atom. (Choice B) Although Compound 2 has 8 valence electrons around each atom and follows the octet rule, the overall structure has a total of 20 valence electrons and has a net charge. Atoms from Group 16 each contribute only 6 valence electrons. Therefore, SO₂ should have a total of only 18 valence electrons and no net charge. (Choice C) Compound 1 does not follow the octet rule, and Compound 2 has too many valence electrons. Educational objective: Lewis structures symbolically depict chemical compounds by using chemical symbols to represent atoms and dots placed around the symbols to represent the valence electrons and their bonding configuration. Dots are arranged to give each atom a full valence shell of electrons following either the octet rule or a valid exception.

Passage Sulfur Is the 10th Most Abundant Element on Earth and and Is