How to draw a lewis structure of carbon dioxide, CO2?

The first thing you need to do is to determine the number of per atom. You can do this by either (1) drawing the or (2) consulting the group number of your element in .

If you go with (1), we will have these:

C (atomic number = 6) : ##1s^2## ##color (red) (2s^2)## ##color (red) (2p^2)## (outermost ##e^-##are 4)

O (atomic number = 8) : ##1s^2## ##color (red) (2s^2)## ##color (red) (2p^4)## (outermost ##e^-##are 6)

If you go with (2), just notice that ##C## belongs to Group 4A in the periodic table while ##O## belongs to Group 6A. The group number already tells you the number of in the outermost shell.

Now that you know the valence electrons, you have to draw the electron-dot structures.

Please notice that the bonding of electrons follow the (eight electrons per atom).

Hope this helps.