Covalent| Lewis structure| SO2 – Simple Procedure for Dot structures - #53

A simple procedure for writing co-valent Lewis Structures was given in a previous article entitled “Lewis Structures and the Octet Rule”.
Several worked examples relevant to this procedure were given in previous posts please see the Sitemap - Table of Contents (Lewis Electron Dot Structures).

Let us examine the case of SO₂

Step 1: Connect the atoms with single bonds. 

Fig. 1:  The SO₂  atoms connected with single bonds

Step 2:  Calculate the # of electrons in π bonds (multiple bonds) using  formula (1):
 

Where n in this case is 3. Where V = 6 + 6 + 6 = 18, V is the number of valence electrons of  SO₂.

Therefore, P = 6n + 2 – V = 6 * 3 + 2 – 18  = 2     So, there is one double bond in the molecule.

Step 3 & 4: The  resonance structures of   SO₂  areas follows:

Fig. 2:  Lewis structures of SO₂