How many lone pairs of electrons exist on the central atom in oxygen O?

Answer 1

SIMPLY-The element Oxygen can either capture two electrons or share two elect

so just for the more techy side......ns.

The Electron Structure of Oxygen

Oxygen atoms have 8 protons and therefore 8 electrons in their neutral state. If we follow the subshell filling guide for elements, we end up with this: 1s2 2s2 2p4. This tells us that Oxygen has two shells of electrons. The first is holds only two electrons and is completely filled. The second contains six electrons, with space for another two electrons to make the full complement of 8 which is necessary for stability. As these outer shell electrons are arranged in pairs, we get the electron dot diagram for Oxygen as shown to the left. We can see from this that Oxygen will want to either capture two electrons or share two electrons to achieve stability.

We can see a more detailed image of the electron structure of the Oxygen element below. Subshells are indicated by the black horizontal lines. The numbers in brackets show the maximum number of electrons that can be placed in that subshell is the number given in brackets.