valence shell
The valence shell is the outermost occupied shell of electrons in an atom. This shell holds the valence electrons, which are the electrons that are involved in bonding and shown in a Lewis structure. Valence-shell electron pair repulsion theory , or VSEPR theory, states that a molecule will adjust its shape so that the valence electron pairs stay as far apart from each other as possible. This makes sense, based on the fact that negatively charged electrons repel one another. We will systematically classify molecules according to the number of bonding pairs of electrons and the number of nonbonding or lone pairs around the central atom. For the purposes of the VSEPR model, a double or triple bond is no different in terms of repulsion than a single bond. We will begin by examining molecules in which the central atom does not have any lone pairs.