Question

how many electron domains are around iodine in $if_{3}$? hint: what representation do you need to create before you can determine the number of electron domains?

Explanation:

Step1: Determine the Lewis structure

First, find the total number of valence electrons. Iodine (I) has 7 valence electrons and each fluorine (F) has 7. So for \(IF_3\), the total valence electrons \(=7 + 3\times7=28\).
Iodine is the central atom. Each \(I - F\) bond uses 2 electrons. Three \(I - F\) bonds use \(3\times2 = 6\) electrons. The remaining electrons \(=28 - 6=22\). These remaining electrons are distributed as lone pairs. Iodine has 2 lone pairs (\(2\times2 = 4\) electrons) and each fluorine has 3 lone pairs (\(3\times3\times2=18\) electrons, \(4 + 18=22\)).

Step2: Calculate electron - domains

The formula for the number of electron - domains around a central atom is the sum of bonding domains and non - bonding (lone pair) domains.
The number of bonding domains ( \(I - F\) bonds) is 3. The number of non - bonding domains (lone pairs on I) is 2.
So the number of electron - domains \(=3 + 2=5\)

Answer:

5