Hydrogen hybrid orbitals

Each carbon of ethylene uses two of its sp hybrid orbitals to form ct bonds to two hydrogen atoms as illustrated m the first part of Figure 2 17 The remaining sp orbitals one on each carbon overlap along the mternuclear axis to give a ct bond connecting the two carbons... 

Section 2 6 Bonding m methane is most often described by an orbital hybridization model which is a modified form of valence bond theory Four equiva lent sp hybrid orbitals of carbon are generated by mixing the 2s 2p 2py and 2p orbitals Overlap of each half filled sp hybrid orbital with a half filled hydrogen Is orbital gives a ct bond... 

The sp hybrid state of nitrogen is just like that of carbon except nitrogen has one more electron Each N—H bond in NH3 involves overlap of an sp hybrid orbital of N with a li orbital of hydrogen The unshared pair of NH3 occupies an sp orbital... 

Each carbon in propane is bonded to four atoms and is sp hybridized The C—C bonds are a bonds involving overlap of a half filled sp hybrid orbital of one carbon with a half filled sp hybrid orbital of the other The C—H bonds are a bonds involving overlap of a half filled sp hybrid onbital of carbon with a half filled hydrogen li orbital... 

When two sp-hybridized carbon atoms approach each other, sp hybrid orbitals on each carbon overlap head-on to form a strong sp-sp a bond. In addition, the pz orbitals from each carbon form a pz-pz it bond by sideways overlap and the py orbitals overlap similarly to form a py-py tt bond. The net effect is the sharing of six electrons and formation of a carbon-carbon triple bond. The two remaining sp hybrid orbitals each form a bond with hydrogen to complete the acetylene molecule (Figure 1.16). 

Hofmann elimination of, 936-938 hybrid orbitals in, 19 hydrogen bonding in. 920 IR spectroscopy of, 428, 952 mass spectrometry of, 416, 954-955... 

We are now ready to account for the bonding in methane. In the promoted, hybridized atom each of the electrons in the four sp3 hybrid orbitals can pair with an electron in a hydrogen ls-orbital. Their overlapping orbitals form four o-bonds that point toward the corners of a tetrahedron (Fig. 3.14). The valence-bond description is now consistent with experimental data on molecular geometry. 

FIGURE 3.14 Each C H bond in methane is formed by the pairing of an electron in a hydrogen U-orbital and an electron in one of the four sp hybrid orbitals of carbon. Therefore, valence-bond theory predicts four equivalent cr-bonds in a tetrahedral arrangement, which is consistent with experimental results. 

Now consider the alkynes, hydrocarbons with carbon-carbon triple bonds. The Lewis structure of the linear molecule ethyne (acetylene) is H—O C- H. To describe the bonding in a linear molecule, we need a hybridization scheme that produces two equivalent orbitals at 180° from each other this is sp hybridization. Each C atom has one electron in each of its two sp hybrid orbitals and one electron in each of its two perpendicular unhybridized 2p-orbitals (43). The electrons in the sp hybrid orbitals on the two carbon atoms pair and form a carbon—carbon tr-bond. The electrons in the remaining sp hybrid orbitals pair with hydrogen Ls-elec-trons to form two carbon—hydrogen o-bonds. The electrons in the two perpendicular sets of 2/z-orbitals pair with a side-by-side overlap, forming two ir-honds at 90° to each other. As in the N2 molecule, the electron density in the o-bonds forms a cylinder about the C—C bond axis. The resulting bonding pattern is shown in Fig. 3.23. 

First, the VB part of the description of benzene. Each C atom is sp2 hybridized, with one electron in each hybrid orbital. Each C atom has a p.-orbital perpendicular to the plane defined by the hybrid orbitals, and it contains one electron. Two sp2 hybrid orbitals on each C atom overlap and form cr-bonds with similar orbitals on the two neighboring C atoms, forming the 120° internal angle of the benzene hexagon. The third, outward-pointing sp2 hybrid orbital on each C atom forms a hydrogen atom. The resulting cr-framework is the same as that illustrated in Fig. 3.20. 

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