Hi! I had a question while making the Lewis dot structures for PCL5; I thought that cl might be the central atom, but then I also felt that , couldn't phosphorous be the central atom because even though chlorine is more electron negative, can't phosphorous form more bonds, because can't it fit in more valence electrons, because of the empty d orbitals it can utilize? Is my thinking correct? I'm not sure about this one, so I left it blank.
Your thinking is perfect and P is the central atom here Remember first rule ,least EN atom must be the central atom.Here P is least EN and yes it can hold 5 bonds and 10 electrons because it can have expanded octet.
Moreover P is one atom and Cl are five ..that also indicated that P is the central atom.
okay thank you!