Which one of the following Lewis structures is definitely incorrect?

Which one of the following Lewis structures is definitely incorrect?
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1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Oct 21, 2017

None of the above! These are all right!

I'm not sure who wrote this question, but they are all real molecules and correct structures... Here they are from a google search...

#"BF"_3# is a trigonal planar molecule:

https://saylordotorg.github.io/

#"NH"_4^(+)# is a tetrahedral cation:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/

#"AlCl"_4^(-)# is a tetrahedral anion (lone pairs not seen, but there should be #3# on each #"Cl"#):

https://upload.wikimedia.org/

#"XeO"_3# is the only thing we need to really check, and that is already good:

That gives #8 + 3 xx 6 = 26# valence electrons to consider. You can make three double bonds around xenon to account for #12# of these electrons, place #2# lone pairs on each oxygen to account for #12# more electrons, and the last pair goes onto the xenon.

That gives (again, lone pairs not seen on the #"O"# atoms, but there are two lone pairs on each of them):

https://upload.wikimedia.org/

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