Carbon atom, tetrahedral geometry

In alkanes the four bonds to the central carbon have tetrahedral geometry. When carbon is bonded by one double bond and two single bonds, as in ethene (an alkene), the molecule is planar, because all atoms lie in a single plane. Each bond angle is approximately 120°. When two carbon atoms are bonded by a triple bond, as in ethyne (an alkyne), each bond angle is 180°. Thus, the molecule is linear, and all atoms are positioned in a straight line (Figure 12.2). 

These two drawings imply square planar geometry, which is not the case for an sp hybridized carbon atom (the geometry is tetrahedral). In some rare cases, you might find a chirality center for which three of the lines are drawn as straight lines, as in the following example ... 

The tetrahedral geometry of the bonding at the carbon atoms has bond angles of 109.5°. 

The chemistry of propylene is characterized both by the double bond and by the aHyUc hydrogen atoms. Propylene is the smallest stable unsaturated hydrocarbon molecule that exhibits low order symmetry, ie, only reflection along the main plane. This loss of symmetry, which implies the possibiUty of different types of chemical reactions, is also responsible for the existence of the propylene dipole moment of 0.35 D. Carbon atoms 1 and 2 have trigonal planar geometry identical to that of ethylene. Generally, these carbons are not free to rotate, because of the double bond. Carbon atom 3 is tetrahedral, like methane, and is free to rotate. The hydrogen atoms attached to this carbon are aUyflc. 

The most common reaction of aldehydes and ketones is the nucleophilic addition reaction, in which a nucleophile, Nu , adds to the electrophilic carbon of the carbonyl group. Since the nucleophile uses an electron pair to form a new bond to carbon, two electrons from the carbon-oxygen double bond must move toward the electronegative oxygen atom to give an alkoxide anion. The carbonyl carbon rehybridizes from sp2 to sp3 during the reaction, and the alkoxide ion product therefore has tetrahedral geometry. 

One consequence of tetrahedral geometry is that an amine with three different substituents on nitrogen is chiral, as we saw in Section 9.12. Unlike chiral carbon compounds, however, chiral amines can t usually be resolved because the two enantiomeric forms rapidly interconvert by a pyramidal inversion, much as an alkyl halide inverts in an Sfg2 reaction. Pyramidal inversion occurs by a momentary rehybridization of the nitrogen atom to planar, sp2 geometry, followed by rehybridization of the planar intermediate to tetrahedral, 5p3 geometry... 

Carbon atom. 3-dimensionality of, 8 tetrahedral geometry of, 7-8 Carbonate ion, resonance forms of,... 

As the number of carbon atoms in the alkane increases, so does the number of possible stractural isomers. Thousands of different alkanes exist, because there are no limits on the length of the carbon chain. Regardless of the number of the chain length, alkanes have tetrahedral geometry around all of their carbon atoms. The structure of decane, Cio H22, shown in Figure 9-15. illustrates this feature. Notice that the carbon backbone of decane has a zigzag pattern because of the 109.5° bond angles that characterize the tetrahedron. 

Start with water, which is essential for life as we know it. If the water molecule were linear rather than bent, it would lack the properties that life-forms require. Linear water would not be polar and would be a gas like carbon dioxide. Why is water bent Its four electron pairs adopt tetrahedral geometry, putting lone pairs at two vertices of a tetrahedron and hydrogen atoms at the other two vertices. 

The reaction of dabco (l,4-diazobicyclo[2.2.2]octane) with Me2Cd yields a 1 1 adduct 197, which adopts a linear polymeric structure (Figure 34).255 The cadmium atom is coordinated by two dabco units and two methyl carbon atoms giving rise to a distorted tetrahedral environment. Finally, the organocadmium adduct 198 (Figure 35) has been isolated from the reaction of Me2Cd with Cd[(SeP-/-Pr2)2N]2.256 The solid-state structure consists of dimeric units where each methylcadmium unit is coordinated to three selenium atoms. The geometry about the cadmium center is tetrahedral with a Cd-C distance of 2.16 A, which is comparable to that observed in other cadmium alkyl complexes. 

From your prior study of chemistry, the hybrid orbital types sp and sp3 used to describe these cases are probably familiar. It is not unusual to hear someone say that CH4 is tetrahedral because the carbon atom is sp3 hybridized. However, CH4 is tetrahedral because that structure represents the configuration of lowest energy, and our way of describing a set of orbitals that matches that geometry is by combining 95... 

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