Na and Cl ions

 

 

 


Na and Cl before...
Na and Cl after...
All the Lewis dots!
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:

[Ne] and [Ne]3s23p6

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.