Sulfur hexafluoride hybrid orbitals

Thus the bonding in sulfur hexafluoride SF has for a long time been considered to involve two of the 3d orbitals of sulfur, with the sulfur in a sp d 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, 

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  

This type of hybridization is known as sp d (or dsp, depending on where you look). The remaining type of hybridization, known as sp d - sp ), can be seen in the hybridization of sulfur in the compound sulfur hexafluoride, SFg. In the diagram below, note how two electrons are promoted to the d orbitals  

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