Hybrid orbitals trigonal

The element before carbon in Period 2, boron, has one electron less than carbon, and forms many covalent compounds of type BX3 where X is a monovalent atom or group. In these, the boron uses three sp hybrid orbitals to form three trigonal planar bonds, like carbon in ethene, but the unhybridised 2p orbital is vacant, i.e. it contains no electrons. In the nitrogen atom (one more electron than carbon) one orbital must contain two electrons—the lone pair hence sp hybridisation will give four tetrahedral orbitals, one containing this lone pair. Oxygen similarly hybridised will have two orbitals occupied by lone pairs, and fluorine, three. Hence the hydrides of the elements from carbon to fluorine have the structures... 

We use different hybridization schemes to describe other arrangements of electron pairs (Fig. 3.16). For example, to explain a trigonal planar electron arrangement, like that in BF, and each carbon atom in ethene, we mix one s-orbital with two /7-orbitals and so produce three sp2 hybrid orbitals ... 

In this case, there are three equivalent hybrid orbitals, each called sp (trigonal hybridization). This method of designating hybrid orbitals is perhaps unfortunate since nonhybrid orbitals are designated by single letters, but it must be kept in mind that each of the three orbitals is called sp. These orbitals are shown in Figure 1.4. The three axes are all in one plane and point to the comers of an equilateral triangle. This accords with the known structure of boron trifluoride (BF3), a planar molecule with angles of 120°. 

Three equivalent p -hybridized orbitals achieve maximum distance from one another when they arrange in a trigonal planar structure ... 

This nitrogen atom has three bonds and one lone pair, so it is sp hybridized, just as we would expect. The lone pair occupies an sp hybridized orbital, and the nitrogen atom has trigonal pyramidal geometry, just as we saw in the previous section. But now consider the nitrogen atom in the following compound ... 

Remember that the molecular shape ignores the lone pair. The hydronium ion has a trigonal pyramidal shape described by the three s p hybrid orbitals that form bonds to hydrogen atoms. 

An inner atom with a steric number of 3 has trigonal planar electron group geometry and can be described using s p hybrid orbitals. 

With a steric number of 5, chlorine has trigonal bipyramidal electron group geomehy. This means the inner atom requires five directional orbitals, which are provided hymsp d hybrid set. Fluorine uses its valence 2 p orbitals to form bonds by overlapping with the hybrid orbitals on the chlorine atom. Remember that the trigonal bipyramid has nonequivalent axial and equatorial sites. As we describe in Chapter 9, lone pairs always occupy equatorial positions. See the orbital overlap view on the next page. 

Figure 3.17 Geometry of hybrid orbitals, (a) digonal sp hybrids oppositely directed along the same axis (b) trigonal sp2 hybrids pointing along three axes in a plane inclined at 120° (c) tetrahedral sp3 hybrids pointing towards the comers of a regular tetrahedron. (Reproduced with permission from R. McWeeny, Coulson s Valence, 1979, Oxford University Press, Oxford.)...

Figure 2. Diagrams showing the directions of the maxima of octahedral sp3d2 and trigonal bipyramidal and square pyramidal sp3d hybrid orbitals.

Next we must select a hybridization scheme for the Br atom that is compatible with the predicted shape. It turns out that only sp3d hybridization will provide the necessary trigonal bipyramidal distribution of electron pairs around the bromine atom. In this scheme, one of the sp3d hybrid orbitals is filled while the remaining four are half-occupied. 

The orientation of three sp2 hybrid orbitals is trigonal planar... 

To minimise repulsion, the three sp hybrid orbitals adopt a trigonal planar arrangement, l.e. they lie in the same plane with an angle of 120° between them. 

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