Lone pairs , packing

Bismuth Triiodlde. Bismuth(Ill) iodide is a greenish black crystalline powder. The iodines are in a hexagonal close-packed array with each bismuth having six nearest-neighbor iodines at 0.32 nm (21). This suggests that the lone pair on bismuth is stereochemicaHy inactive and that the compound is largely ionic in character. 

For AX molecules with no lone pairs in the valence shell of A, both the VSEPR model and the LCP model predict the same geometries, namely AX2 linear, AX3 equilateral triangular, AX4 tetrahedral, AX5 trigonal bipyramidal, and AX octahedral. Indeed Bent s tangent sphere model can be used equally as a model of the packing of spherical electron pair domains and as a model of the close packing of spherical ligands around the core of the central atom. 

Molecules of the elements of period 3 and beyond may have higher LLP coordination numbers than four, and therefore considered to be hypervalent, because their atoms are larger than those of the period 2 elements. In other words, more than a total of four ligands and lone pairs can pack around a central atom if it is from period 3 and beyond. 

Glowka et al. studied two tetrahydro[l,2,4]triazolo[4,3- ]pyrimidine derivatives 66a and 66b by X-ray diffraction <1994JCX375>. In the solid state, both molecules had the same conformation and were found to be packed in similar manner. The triazole rings proved to be planar, and the conjugation of the Jt-electrons with the lone pair of the N-8 atom was assumed to be the reason of the sofa conformation of the saturated six-membered ring. 

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