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QuestionChemistry

Draw the Lewis structure for SiO^2 and indicate how many unshared pairs of electrons are present on the silicon.
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Step 1:
I'll solve this step by step, following the LaTeX formatting guidelines precisely:

Step 2:
: Determine the total number of valence electrons

\text{Total valence electrons} = 4 + (2 \times 6) = 16
- Silicon (Si): 4 valence electrons - Oxygen (O): 6 valence electrons - Two oxygen atoms are present

Step 3:
: Arrange atoms and form single bonds

\text{Remaining electrons after bonding} = 16 - 4 = 12
- Silicon will be the central atom - Connect both oxygen atoms to silicon

Step 4:
: Distribute remaining electrons as lone pairs

\text{Remaining electrons} = 12 - 6 = 6
- Place remaining electrons around oxygen atoms first - Each oxygen atom will have 3 lone pairs

Step 5:
: Complete the Lewis structure

- The remaining 6 electrons cannot be placed on silicon - Silicon will have 0 unshared electron pairs - Oxygen atoms will have 3 lone pairs each

Final Answer

The Lewis structure for SiO^2 has 0 unshared pairs of electrons on the silicon atom.