Sulfur hexafluoride hybrid orbitals

Thus the bonding in sulfur hexafluoride SF6 has for a long time been considered to involve two of the 3d orbitals of sulfur, with the sulfur in a sp3d2 hybridized state and... 

A molecule with a steric number of 6 requires six hybrid orbitals arranged in octahedral geometry. In Chapter 9, sulfur hexafluoride appears as the primary example of a molecule with a steric number of 6 (Figure ). Six equivalent orbitals for sulfur can be constmcted for the inner sulfur atom by combining the 3. S, the three 3 p,... 

This type of hybridization is known as sp3d (or dsp3, depending on where you look). The remaining type of hybridization, known as sp3cf (cfsp3), can be seen in the hybridization of sulfur in the compound sulfur hexafluoride, SF6. In Figure 7.21 below, note how two electrons are promoted to the d orbitals ... 

The molecule sulfur hexafluoride SF6 exemplifies one of the most common types of d orbital hybridization. The six bonds in this octahedrally-coordinated molecule are derived from mixing six atomic orbitals into a hybrid set. The easiest way to understand how these come about is to imagine that the molecule is made by combining an imaginary S6+ ion (which we refer to as the S(VI) valence state) with six F ions to form the neutral molecule. These now-empty 3s and 3p orbitals then mix with two 3d orbitals to form the sp3d2 hybrids. 

The hybridization of one s orbital, three p orbitals, and two d orbitals results in sp tf hybrid orbitals, as shown in Figure 10.12a a. The six sp d hybrid orbitals have an octahedral geometry, shown in Figure 10.12b a. As an example of sp d hybridization, consider sulfur hexafluoride, SF5. The sulfur atom bonds to six fluorine atoms by overlap between the sp d hybrid orbitals on sulfur and p orbitals on the fluorine atoms ... 

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