Ethane is widely used in the petrochemical industry and for the production of ethylene.

One can easily understand the Lewis dot structure of this molecule. It only has two carbon atoms and symmetric distribution of molecules with lone pairs. Thus C2H6 has a trigonal pyramidal shape.Įthane is one of the simplest hydrocarbons due to its structure. These forces lead to the formation of a trigonal pyramidal shape for this molecule. However, the electron clouds that are on both the Carbon atoms will repel each other. C2H6 ShapeĪs mentioned above, the molecule has a tetrahedral geometry without any lone pairs. Lone pair of electrons can change the bond angles due to their repulsive forces, but here in C2H6, as there are no lone pairs in the molecule, the bond angles in C2H6 is 109.5 degrees. The molecules with a tetrahedral molecular geometry have bond angles of 109.5 degrees, which are typically affected by lone pairs of electrons. Hence C2h6 has a tetrahedral molecular geometry. If you look at the arrangement of atoms in the molecule, you will notice that all the Hydrogen atoms are arranged around Carbon atoms in the tetrahedral geometry. The formation of such hybridized orbitals results in sp3 hybridization. Amongst these hybrid orbitals, one hybrid orbital will overlap with the 1s-orbital of the Hydrogen atom that produces the sigma bond between a Hydrogen and Carbon atom. As a result, four orbitals that is 1s, px, py and pz orbitals are hybridized in each Carbon atom. Here each Carbon atom forms three sigma bonds with Hydrogen atoms and one sigma bond with a Carbon atom. C2H6 Hybridizationĭuring bond formation, the orbitals of atoms are hybridized to share electrons with another atom. This is the Lewis Dot structure of C2H6 using up all the fourteen valence electrons. The arrangement of the electrons and atoms is symmetric in this molecule. Here in Ethane, Carbon forms bonds with Hydrogen atoms which helps with these atoms to attain a stable structure and at the same time form bond with other Cabron atom to complete their octet.Īll the valence electrons are used up to make the molecule’s stable structure, hence it doesn’t have any lone pairs or nonbonding pairs of electrons. Due to this each Hydrogen atom now has two electrons in its outer shell which makes it stable.īoth carbon atoms also form single bonds with each other and share their electrons to complete their octet. Similarly, Carbon needs four more electrons to complete its octet.Įach Carbon atom forms bonds with three Hydrogen atoms and shares electrons. Now place all the Hydrogen atoms around the Carbon atoms along with their valence electrons.Īfter placing all the atoms, you might notice that each Hydrogen atom needs one electron to attain a stable structure. So put both the Carbon atoms along with their four valence electrons each like this.

The individual atoms with all their valence electrons are shown in this structure to know the bond formation, molecular geometry, and shape of the molecule.Īnd as we have the total number of valence electrons now, we can start drawing the Lewis dot structure of Ethane.īoth the Carbon atoms will be placed in the centre as Hydrogen atoms can never be in the central position. Lewis structure helps with understanding the placement of atoms in the structure along with its valence electrons.

Ch4 electron domain geometry