Question

sal drew the electron dot diagram of an aluminum atom as shown. how should sal correct his diagram? he should add five more dots so that the atom obeys the octet rule. he should add ten more dots so that all the valence electrons are shown. he should add a single dot below the symbol. he should add one dot below and one dot to the left of the symbol.

Explanation:

Aluminum (\(Al\)) has an atomic number of \(13\). Its electron configuration is \(1s^{2}2s^{2}2p^{6}3s^{2}3p^{1}\). In the Lewis dot structure (electron dot diagram), we only consider the valence electrons. The valence - shell electron configuration of \(Al\) is \(3s^{2}3p^{1}\), so it has \(3\) valence electrons.
The Lewis dot structure rules state that we place one dot at a time on the four sides (top, bottom, left, right) of the element symbol. For \(Al\), we should have \(3\) dots around the \(Al\) symbol. In the given diagram, there are \(2\) dots. So, we need to add one more dot.

Answer:

He should add one dot below and one dot to the left of the symbol.