What is a Carbon Dioxide Molecule?
Oxygen and carbon are both non-metals.
An oxygen atom has 6
electrons in its
outer
shell.
Oxygen is in group 6 of the periodic table.
A carbon atom has 4 electrons in its
outer shell.
Carbon is in group 4 of the periodic
table.
Two oxygen atoms and 1 carbon
atom will each share
two electrons
to form
four covalent bonds and make a carbon dioxide molecule (CO2).
This is a picture of a carbon dioxide molecule.
By sharing the four
electrons where the shells touch
each oxygen and carbon
atom can count 8 electrons in its outer shell.
These full outer
shells with their shared electrons are now stable,
and the CO2 molecule will not
react further with other oxygen
or carbon atoms.
Each electron
pair is one
bond.
Carbon and oxygen have two bonds
each between their atoms.
This is called a double bond.
The structural formula of a carbon dioxide molecule is written
There are no ions present (no + or - charges) in carbon
dioxide gas
because
the electrons are shared, not
transferred from one atom to
another.
Carbon dioxide does form hydrogen
ions when it is
dissolved
in water (or rain water) to become a weak
acid called carbonic
acid.
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