Lewis structure of PO3-1 – Simple Procedure for Dot structures - #51

A simple procedure for writing 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 consider the case of  PO₃^-1.

Step 1: Connect the atoms with single bonds:

Fig. 1:  The PO₃^-1  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 4. Where V = (6 + 6 + 6 + 5) – (-1) = 24 , V is the number of valence electrons of PO₃^-1
Therefore, P = 6n + 2 – V = 6 * 4 + 2 – 24  = 2    So, there is one double bond in the molecule.

Step 3 & 4: The  resonance structures of  PO₃^-1are as follows:

Fig. 2:  Electron dot structure of  PO₃^-1