Drawing dot and cross diagrams

Instead of trying to remember lots of different dot and cross diagrams, it may help to understand how to draw them.

How many bonds?

form by sharing to get a full outer shell. This means that the number of covalent bonds an atom can form is the same as the number of electrons needed to get a full outer shell. For most a full outer shell is eight electrons.

The table below shows the number of bonds formed by elements in groups 4 to 7.

Group	Example	Electrons	Covalent bonds
4	Carbon, C	4	4
5	Nitrogen, N	5	3
6	Oxygen, O	6	2
7	Chlorine, Cl	7	1

Group	4
Example	Carbon, C
Electrons	4
Covalent bonds	4

Group	5
Example	Nitrogen, N
Electrons	5
Covalent bonds	3

Group	6
Example	Oxygen, O
Electrons	6
Covalent bonds	2

Group	7
Example	Chlorine, Cl
Electrons	7
Covalent bonds	1

Hydrogen atoms only have one electron and form one covalent bond as they only need one more for a full outer shell.

How many circles?

To work out how many circles to draw for a simple substance and how to label them, look at the . For example, the formula for ammonia is NH₃. For this, draw four circles, one labelled N and three labelled H. Each of the three H circles overlaps the N circle.

An example of how chemistry circles are drawn — Figure caption,
It is often easiest to draw circles at 90° or 180° to each other

Nitrogen is in 5 so it forms three covalent bonds. There are three shared spaces between the circles, so add a dot and cross to each one.

Example of an incomplete dot and cross diagram — Figure caption,
This incomplete dot and cross diagram shows only the bonding pairs of electrons

Finally, add in the non-bonding outer electrons. Nitrogen atoms have five outer electrons. Three of these are shared, which leaves two electrons that do not take part in bonding.

Example of a complete dot and cross diagram — Figure caption,
The complete dot and cross diagram for ammonia

Question

Draw a dot and cross diagram for methane, CH₄.