Question

Draw the electron dot structure of a chlorine molecule.

Hint:

The electron dot structure helps visualize how atoms share electrons to form covalent bonds. The shared pair of electrons gives each chlorine atom a full valence shell.

Answer 1

The electron dot structure (or Lewis structure) of a chlorine molecule (Cl$_2$) shows the arrangement of valence electrons. Each chlorine atom has 7 valence electrons. To form a stable molecule, they share one pair of electrons.
Draw the symbols for the two chlorine atoms side-by-side: `Cl Cl`
Each atom has 7 valence electrons. Place one electron from each atom between them to form a shared pair (the covalent bond).
Arrange the remaining 6 electrons for each atom around it as three lone pairs (non-bonding pairs).
The final structure is:
\includegraphics[width=0.3\linewidth]{07.png}
Here, the shared pair of electrons can also be represented by a single line connecting the two atoms, representing the single covalent bond. Each atom is now surrounded by 8 electrons (6 in lone pairs and 2 in the shared bond), satisfying the octet rule.