The 6 bonds here come from 6 oxygens connecting to the central potassium atom in purple. I don't know, but I bet each oxygen donates 1/6 of an electron to the potassium atom, which is missing one.
1/6 of an electron?!? 🤯
You can't actually chop an electron into parts, but you can have a single electron whose wavefunction is smeared out around all 6 oxygen atoms and the central potassium.
So, this ball-and-stick model is pretty misleading. The molecule doesn't really have sticks in it. Let me show you another picture of it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18-Crown-6
(2/n)
