For the P4 Lewis structure it's a bit more
difficult, we need to think in three dimensions.
So we're going to have a triangular pyramid.
So the base of our pyramid is going to be
a triangle which you can see on the screen
right now.
We'll then add the top of our pyramid.
So you can imagine that these two ends in
the front, they're our towards us, and then
this part right here is back in the screen.
And then we have the top of the pyramid.
We're going to put a Phosphorous atom on each
corner.
So we'e used the four Phosphorous atoms that
we have for the P4 Lewis structure.
Remember, this Phosphorous right here is going
back into the screen while these two are closer
to us.
So we have a total 20 valence electrons for
the P4 Lewis structure.
If we count the bonds we've already formed,
we formed 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 chemical bonds.
So each of those lines represents a chemical
bond, and each bond is two electrons.
So we've used 12 valence electrons.
And you can see each of the Phosphorous atoms
only has six valence electrons, it has three
bonds going to it.
So it needs eight for a full outer shell,
or an octet.
So let's go around and fill the octets of
the Phosphorus atoms until we get to the 20
valence electrons we have for the Lewis structure
for P4.
So we have 12 we've used, 14, 16, 18, and
20.
We've used all 20 valence electrons, and you
can see that each of the Phosphorous atoms
now has eight valence electrons.
It's those three bonds, there are three valence
electrons there, and then the two that we've
just added.
All of the atoms have octets, we've used 20
valence electrons, that's it.
That's the Lewis structure for P4.
This is Dr. B, thanks for watching.
