Lewis Electron-Dot Structure for Chlorine Dioxide Ion (ClO2+)-#39

A simple method for writing Lewis Dot Structures is 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 chloryl (ClO₂⁺) . 

Step 1: Connect the atoms with single bonds. The central atom is the chlorine atom.

Fig. 1 : Connect the atoms of the chloryl (ClO₂⁺) with single bonds.

 

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

Where n in this case is 3 since ClO₂⁺ consists of three atoms.

Where V = (7 + 6 + 6 ) – 1 = 18  

Therefore, P = 6n + 2 – V = 6 * 3 + 2 – 18 = 2     So, there are 2 π electrons in  ClO₂⁺  and the structure in Step 1 has 1 double bond.

Electrons are placed around each atom so that the octet rule is obeyed. Since Cl is a third row element can accommodate more than 8 electrons.

Step 3 & 4: The Lewis resonance structures of  ClO₂⁺   areas follows:

The most stable resonance structure is #4 since it has the smallest charge separation and the positive charge is on the Cl atom which is less electronegative than O.