In my understanding sulfur dioxide’s Lewis structure has one lone pair on the centre atom (sulfur) with one pi bond to each oxygen atom, while silicon cannot form these silicon-oxygen pi bonds. Both sulfur and silicon are 3rd period elements, so I’m not sure why sulfur can form sulfur-oxygen pi bonds while silicon cannot form those pi bonds (because if it could it would likely also be a molecular gas with a similar Lewis structure to carbon dioxide. Please explain.
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3$\begingroup$ SO2 is like O3, not CO2. $\endgroup$– MithoronCommented Jun 30 at 20:35
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$\begingroup$ I wonder if Si being a larger atom prevents favorable pi overlap (It is farther left in the same period which should indicate a larger atomic radius). This also means Si is less electronegative than S. Those would be things I would suggest looking into $\endgroup$– Jeff GustafsonCommented Jul 1 at 20:18
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$\begingroup$ This question is similar to: Why are Silicates solid while carbon dioxide is a gas?. If you believe it’s different, please edit the question, make it clear how it’s different and/or how the answers on that question are not helpful for your problem. $\endgroup$– Nilay GhoshCommented Jul 2 at 5:02
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