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Aluminum oxide, also known as alum, is a compound of aluminium and oxygen. It is used as an electrical insulator and for abrasion protection by anodizing. It is toxic if inhaled or swallowed. Symptoms of short-term exposure include irritation of the eyes and nose. Long-term exposure may cause central nervous system effects.
A Lewis dot structure is a visual representation of the position of valence electrons involved in the formation of a chemical bond. It uses dots around the atom symbol to represent the number of valence electrons available for bonding. The closer the dots are, the more strongly the atoms are bound together.
Valence electrons are the outermost electrons in an element that are available for forming bonds with other atoms. An atom with three or more valence electrons becomes unstable. To become stable, it will donate those electrons to another atom with fewer electrons in its valence shell.
In the Al2O3 lewis structure, the two aluminum atoms lose their three valence electrons to the oxygen atoms in a chemical bond. The resulting molecule has sp2 hybridization.
The molecular structure of Al2O3 is ionic due to the transfer of electrons. The Al cation is positively charged because it lost its three valence electrons to the oxygen molecules. The negatively charged oxygen atoms have six electrons in their outermost shell and complete their octet by accepting two electrons from the Al ions. This creates a strong bond between the Al and oxygen atoms which is known as ionic bonding.