Carbon atoms are depicted not by a capital C, but by a ‘corner’ between two bonds or a free end of a bond. Open-chain molecules are usually drawn out in a ‘zig-zig’ shape.

Once again, knowing the functional groups at this point will help you tremendously when converting Lewis or condensed structures to bond-line structures. In the following practice problem, we will go …

Bond-Line or “skeletal” structures are the main way of the molecular representation in organic chemistry. As I’ve already mentioned before, it’s extremely important to practice the skill of converting to and …

In this case, Sulfur has only 6 electrons, so it needs 2 more electrons to complete its octet, thus we will form a double bond between one of the oxygens to complete its octet! This is done by shifting one of …

Determine the Lewis Structure of the following condensed structure of oleic acid, a fatty acid that is found naturally in various animal and vegetable fats and oils.

Draw one structure that corresponds to each of the following molecular formulas, using the common bonding patterns covered above. Be sure to include all lone pairs and formal charges where …

Sometimes, one or more carbon atoms in a line structure will be depicted with a capital C, if doing so makes an explanation easier to follow. If you label a carbon with a C, you also must draw in the …

The Lewis structure of ethene, C 2 H 4, shows us that each carbon atom is surrounded by one other carbon atom and two hydrogen atoms. The three bonding regions form a trigonal planar electron-pair …

The double covalent bond that occurs between the two carbon atoms in ethane can also be represented by a structural formula and with a molecular model as shown below.

To draw this as a bond-line drawing, we focus on the carbon skeleton, making sure to draw any atoms other than C and H. All atoms other than carbon and hydrogen must be drawn.