OCl2 is the molecular formula of dichlorine monoxide which is an inorganic compound existing as a brown-yellow gas at room temperature. As dichlorine monoxide belongs to the chlorine oxide family, it is soluble in both water and organic solvents.
Moreover, being an anhydride of hypochlorous acid, dichlorine monoxide is a strong oxidizer as well as a chlorinating agent.
There are different methods of preparing this compound where a few of the reactions are mentioned down below:
Preparing dichlorine monoxide with mercury is an older approach where it is not used preferred for commercial purposes as it is expensive and possesses a higher danger of exposure to mercury poisoning.
In addition to this, dichlorine monoxide is considered a major explosive as room temperature mixtures in the presence of oxygen can only be exploded with the help of an electric spark until there exist a minimum of 23.5% of OCl2.
The electrons present in the outermost shells are called valence electrons as they readily participate in the bond formation to form a new molecule.
The valence electrons only participate in the bond formation because they are the farthest from the nucleus of the atom due to which they do not get easily influenced by its force of attraction.
Moreover, as per the octet rule, an atom can have a maximum of 8 valence electrons in the outermost shell where they need only these many to stabilize their octet. The 8 is a decided number as every atom wants to attain the electronic configuration of the noble gases.
Whereas, many groups within the periodic table do not follow this rule as the outermost shell can stretch itself to accommodate more valence electrons.
OCL2 lewis structure octet rule
The electronic stability of the orbital of a molecule can be described by this Octet rule. This rule states the maximum capability of electrons in outer orbit of atom.
All main group elements of the Periodic table favour eight electrons in the last energetic shell. So name of the rule is Octet rule. Only Hydrogen atom can’t maintain the rule. Its orbit contains only “s” orbital with maximum capability of two electrons.
Oxygen atom has six electrons in the 2s and 2p orbital. It tends to accept two more electrons. Chlorine atom has seven electrons in the 3s and 3p orbital, so it accepts one electron from donor atom to become stable like Argon gas.
In this way both Oxygen and Chlorine cover the outer most orbits with eight electrons. For this full filled orbit, the energy of the molecule lowers. The configuration of the molecule stabilizes.
OCL2 lewis structure shape
VSEPR theory (Valence shell electron pair repulsion theory) can help to understand the facts about shape of ocl2 lewis structure.
Minimum repulsion between electron cloud of the last orbit, only can stabilize the structure of a molecule. So the outer shell electron cloud of OCl2 molecule spread over the molecule accordingly.
This theory assumes that, the electrons which don’t participate in bonding formation (lone pair) remain over the originate atom. These spread over more space than the electron cloud of bonding.
For this the repulsion between unshared electron cloud is greater than the electron cloud of bonding pair. Geometry of the molecular structure is disarranged by this.
After atomic orbital mixing up of the central atom Oxygen, new sp3 hybridized orbital occurs in the molecule. This hybridization of atomic orbital refers the tetrahedral molecular geometry. But central atom Oxygen atom has two pairs of unshared electrons.
For the repulsion, the structure of the OCl2 molecule becomes disturbed. To settle the steric repulsion, the angle between the two bonds decreases. Hence shape of the molecule changes to “V” liked shape.
Is OCl2 polar or nonpolar?
Is OCl2 polar or non-polar? OCl2 is a polar molecule. This is because of the asymmetrical structure that causes uneven charge distribution which contributes to the nonzero dipole moment and makes this molecule (OCl2) polar in nature.
Also, the chlorine atom gets a positive charge because of its less electronegativity, and the oxygen atom gets a negative charge because of its high electronegativity.
The separation of positive and negative charges leads to the dipole moment in OCl2 and these dipole moments will not be canceled out because the shape of OCl2 is bent which is asymmetric, hence, there will some net dipole moment in the molecule, and this makes, OCl2 a Polar molecule.
FAQ
What is the shape and bond angle of OCl2?
How many total valence electrons are in OCl2?
When Lewis structure is drawn how many single bonds does OCl2 have?