How to Draw the Lewis Dot Structure for Na2O (Sodium oxide)

A step-by-step explanation of how to draw the Na2O Lewis Dot Structure.

For Na2O we have an ionic compound and we need to take that into account when we draw the Lewis Structure. We’ll first draw the metal and put it in brackets with its charge on the outside (video: finding ionic charge: youtu.be/M22YQ1hHhEY).

Next, we'll draw the Lewis Structure for the O2- ion and add brackets. We put the two ions together to complete the Lewis structure for Na2O. Note that Na2O is also called Sodium oxide.

For a complete tutorial on drawing Lewis Structures, see my video: youtu.be/1ZlnzyHahvo

For more practice, see youtu.be/DQclmBeIKTc

To learn to find the valence electrons: youtu.be/VBp7mKdcrDk

Note that is it more common to draw Lewis Structures for covalent (molecular) compounds where valance electrons are shared. In the case of ionic compounds, where we have a metal bonded to a non-metal (or group of non-metals), the Lewis diagram represents a formula unit. Many of these formula units make up a crystal lattice. So when we talk about the structure for Na2O we think of it together with other Na2O formula units in a crystal (NaCl is a good example of this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_chloride).

Get more chemistry help at thegeoexchange.org/chemistry/bonding

Drawing/writing done in InkScape. Screen capture done with Camtasia Studio 4.0. Done on a Dell Dimension laptop computer with a Wacom digital tablet (Bamboo).