F2 Lewis Structure,Characteristics:17 Facts You Should Know

f2 lewis structure and all other details are going to be discussed in this article.

Fluorine is a chemical element, which is present in the P block of the periodic table. It is present in the second period and the seventeenth group of the  periodic table. It exists in the atmosphere as difluorine gas and, is a halogen.
It is denoted by the symbol F. Fluorine has an atomic number of 9 and atomic mass of 18.99g/mol. It is the lightest of all the halogens and is highly electronegative. It is also highly toxic in nature and highly reactive. It reacts with every element expect for Ar, Ne, He.

It exists as both solid and gas. In it’s solid form it has a bright yellow colour, it acquires a pale yellow colour when in gaseous nature. It’s solid form is has two types: Alpha and beta form. Alpha is opaque in nature and beta is transparent in nature. It has a melting point and boiling point of -219.67°C and -188.11°C respectively.

Its density is found to be 1.696 g/L (STP). It’s crystalline structure is cubic. It is prepared through different methods. Hydrogen fluoride or hydro fluoric acid is the precursor of fluorine.

Applications

1) Production of nuclear material for nuclear power plants.
2) Insulation of electric towers.
3) Hydrogen Fluoride is used to etch glasses.
4) Fluorine is used to make Teflon. Teflon in turn, is used to make a special type of plastic called PTFE which is flexible and has high heat resistance. This is possible because Fluorine has high boiling point.

Teflon is also used in dental health.
5) Fluorine is used as refrigerants.
6) Enrichment of Uranium by UF6 gas.

Lewis Structure of F2

Lewis structure of a compound denotes the electronic arrangements or representation of the combining atoms. Lewis structure can be drawn for any molecules. There are certain rules to draw the Lewis structure of F2. They are as follows

  • Calculate the total number of electrons. Fluorine has seven electrons in its valence shell. So F2 has total 14 electrons.
  • Write the symbol of two fluorine atoms surrounded with their seven valence electrons.
f2 lewis structure
Valence Electrons in F2
  • Make a bond with the two Fluorine atoms and calculate their formal charge. It is found to be zero for both the Fluorine atoms. So this will be the most stable Lewis structure of difluorine molecule.

Resonance in F2

Resonance is the movement of electrons within the molecule to make more than one structure. While doing resonance the stability of the molecule wouldn’t change.

Here in the case of difluorine when its lone pairs gets involved in resonance then the formal charge of the molecule tends to increase. So that can’t be a stable structure. So there is no resonance structure found for difluorine. Mostly resonance is seen in compounds with either double bond or lone pair of electrons.

Formal Charge in F2

The equation for finding the formal charge of a compound is

Formal charge = Valence electrons – No. of lone pairs of electrons – No. of Bonds

The formal charge of both the Fluorine atoms is = 7 – 6 – 1 = 0

 So the formal charge of difluorine is zero.

 Valence electrons in F2

The total number of electrons seen in the outer shell of an atom is its valence electrons. The sum total of electrons in difluorine is 14 electrons.

Octet Rule in F2

According to octet rule there should be eight electrons in the valence shell of an atom after bond construction. When we look into difluorine there are total eight electrons in their outermost shell. Each fluorine has six electrons as lone pairs and two in bond making. So in total there is eight electrons in the outer shell.

3 5
Octet Rule in F2

Lone Pairs in F2

The electrons which don’t participate in bond making procedure is found to be the non – bonding or lone pair of electrons of an atom. Here each fluorine has three pairs. So in total difluorine has six lone pairs or twelve electrons as lone pairs.

Shape and Bond Angle of F2

The shape of the molecule is linear with 1800 bond angle. Here both the Fluorine atoms are joined by a single bond surrounded with its lone pairs. It can also have tetrahedral geometry with one fluorine in the tetrahedral with corners having three lone pairs.

4 4
Shape and Angle of F2

Hybridisation in F2

Hybridisation of difluorine is sp3 hybridization. The electronic configuration of fluorine is 1s2 2s2 2px2 2py2 2pz1. All the 2p orbitals except 2pz is filled. So the 2pz orbitals of two Fluorine atoms shares their electrons each other to form a single bond.
Another way of finding hybridization is through finding the steric number. Steric number is the sum of Sigma bonds and lone pairs in a molecule. Here there is one Sigma bond and three lone pairs. So four is its steric number.

When a molecule’s steric number is four then it follows sp3 hybridization.  According to this concept it may have tetrahedral geometry with bond angle 1090

Solubility of F2

Fluorine is found to be very soluble in water. It reacts with water to form hydrogen fluoride gas or hydrofluoric acid.

Is F2  Ionic or not ?

Difluorine is a covalent compound with one single bond between the two Fluorine atoms.

Is F2  Acidic or not ?

Difluorine is a Lewis acid. Due to the electronegative nature of fluorine it accepts electron pairs and acts as Lewis acid.

Is F2  is Polar or not ?

Difluorine is non- polar in nature. We all know that fluorine is an electronegative element and it should be polar in nature. But the arrangement of fluorine atoms in difluorine is symmetrical. So the polarity of each element got cancelled and as a result it exist as non- polar molecule.

Is F2 is Tetrahedral or Linear ?

The arrangement of two fluorine atoms in difluorine is symmetrical. So it’s a molecule with linear structure.

Is F2 Paramagnetic or diamagnetic ?

Difluorine is a diamagnetic substance. Magnetic properties of an atom or a molecule can be understood by checking whether it has paired or unpaired electrons. If a molecule has paired electrons it is diamagnetic and with unpaired electrons paramagnetic. Here difluorine doesn’t have any unpaired electrons. So it is diamagnetic is nature.

Is Cu2+ is Paramagnetic or diamagnetic ?

Cu2+ is paramagnetic substance. The general electronic configuration of Cu is 3d9 4s2. For attaining more stability one of the electron from 4s level get promoted to 3d. So now it’s electronic configuration is 3d10 4s1 . Cu2+ is copper atom lost with two electrons. When copper losses it’s two electrons the configuration changes to 3d9 4s0 . Here there is one unpaired electron. So it is paramagnetic in nature.

5 3
Electronic Configuration in Cu2+

Is F2 Oxidising or Reducing Agent ?

Difluorine is a strong oxidising agent. Because it can accepts electrons from other compounds due to its high electronegativity. Since  it is used to oxidise another substance we can consider difluorine as a strong oxidising agent.

Conclusion

This article briefly explains all the facts regarding difluorine molecule. Fluorine exits as difluorine gas with pale yellow color. It has six lone pairs with sp3 hybridisation. It is non polar due to linear or symmetrical shape with angle 1800. It has varoius applications in many fields.

Also Read: