* Lewis structures focus on valence electrons. Valence electrons are the electrons in the outermost shell of an atom and are involved in bonding.
* Sodium has only one valence electron. Sodium has an electron configuration of 1s²2s²2p⁶3s¹, meaning it has one electron in its outermost shell (the 3s orbital).
* Lewis structures use dots to represent valence electrons. A sodium atom would only have one dot.
Therefore, a Lewis structure for sodium would be a single dot representing its lone valence electron. It's not a typical Lewis structure because it doesn't show any bonding or lone pairs.
Instead of a Lewis structure, you might see a simplified representation of sodium's electron configuration, like this:
Na: •
This indicates that sodium has one valence electron.
