| 01-05-09UN | | Title | Bonding Patterns for Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Halogens | | Caption | Common bonding paterns for the most used elements in organic chemistry. Carbon is tetravalent, nitrogen is trivalent, oxygen divalent. Hydrogen and the halogens are both monovalent but while hydrogen obeys the duet rule, the halogens have a complete octet with three lone pairs of electrons around them. | | Notes | Carbon needs to form four bonds to complete its octet so it is referred to as tetravelant. Nitrogen will usually have three bonds and one lone pair of electrons (trivalent), while oxygen forms two bonds and has two lone pairs of electrons (divalent). Hydrogen obeys the duet rule so it will only form one bond (monovalent). Halogens form only one bond and have three lone pairs of electrons. | | Keywords | valence bonds, lone pairs, tetravalent, trivalent, divalent, monovalent, duet rule, octet rule | |