Hydrogen reacts with chlorine to form hydrogen chloride - Edexcel - GCSE Chemistry Combined Science - Question 5 - 2016 - Paper 1
Question 5
Hydrogen reacts with chlorine to form hydrogen chloride.
H–H + Cl–Cl → 2H–Cl
The symbol – is used to show a covalent bond.
The electronic configuration of hydroge... show full transcript
Worked Solution & Example Answer:Hydrogen reacts with chlorine to form hydrogen chloride - Edexcel - GCSE Chemistry Combined Science - Question 5 - 2016 - Paper 1
Step 1
The symbol – is used to show a covalent bond.
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Answer
In hydrogen chloride (HCl), a covalent bond is formed between the hydrogen atom and the chlorine atom. The representation of the covalent bond uses a dash (–) to signify the sharing of electrons.
Step 2
The electronic configuration of hydrogen is 1.
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Answer
Hydrogen has one electron in its outer shell, represented as:
H: 1
This single electron is involved in the formation of the covalent bond.
Step 3
The electronic configuration of chlorine is 2.8.7.
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Answer
Chlorine has seven electrons in its outer shell:
Cl: 2, 8, 7
To achieve a stable electronic configuration, chlorine shares one of its outer electrons with hydrogen.
Step 4
Draw the dot-and-cross diagram for the molecule of hydrogen chloride.
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Answer
In the dot-and-cross diagram:
Represent the outer electron of hydrogen as a dot (•).
Represent the shared electron from chlorine as a cross (×).
Thus, in HCl, it will look like this:
•
H – Cl
×
In the dot-and-cross diagram, the single bond between the hydrogen and chlorine atoms demonstrates the sharing of electrons.
