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The transfer of the electron from sodium to
chlorine results in a cation with a Neon electron structure and
an anion with an Argon electron structure:
There is a third way to represent this change. The American chemist G.N. Lewis introduced a system of dotted symbols to represent the outer or valence electrons in atoms. Although chiefly intended to describe covalent bonding, it can be used to illustrate what happens in ionic bonding as well. A Lewis "structure" or symbol for an
element shows the number of valence electrons which is the same
as the Roman numeral at the top of the the column containing that
element in the periodic table. |
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