Question

How do you draw the Lewis structure for an ionic compound?

Answer 1

Hint: The lewis dot structure tells the number of valence electrons around the symbol of the element. For example, the number of valence electrons in the nitrogen is 5 and the number of valence electrons is 6, and one bond is formed by two electrons in which one-one electrons are donated by each atom.

Complete answer:
The lewis dot structure tells the number of valence electrons around the symbol of the element. According to the number of electrons in the atoms are arranged in the shells and the last shell of the atom is the valence shell and the electrons in that shell are valence electrons and these valence electrons are responsible for the bond formation.
For the formation of an ionic compound, one must be a metal and the other must be a non-metal. The metal will be mostly a cation and the non-metal will be mostly an anion.
For example, sodium chloride whose formula is $NaCl$ is an ionic compound because in sodium chloride, sodium is the metal and chlorine is the non-metal. When the bond breaks the two ions formed are $N{{a}^{+}}$ and $C{{l}^{-}}$. Since both of them have the same valency, both the ions are equal in number.
The positive charge on the sodium atom is because one electron is donated by the sodium atom and the negative charge on the chlorine atom is because the electron donated by the sodium atom is accepted by the chlorine atom.
The lewis dot structure of sodium chloride is given below-

Note:
If the overall charge on the molecule is negative then the electron is added to the molecule and if the overall charge on the molecule is positive then the electrons are deducted from the molecule. As the charge increases the number of electrons gained or lost also increases.