central carbon, two (shown in red) from the oxygen itself and two (shown in black) from the carbon. All four of these electrons are counted in both the carbon octet and the oxygen octet, so that both atoms are considered to obey the octet rule.

Example: sodium chloride (NaCl)

The octet rule is simplest in the case of ionic bonding between two atoms, one a metal of low electronegativity and the other a nonmetal

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