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Chemistry Forums for Students => High School Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: foorium on October 19, 2012, 12:29:48 PM

Title: Stibine (SbH3) has a trigonal pyramidal structure but it has 91.7o bond angles?
Post by: foorium on October 19, 2012, 12:29:48 PM
The orbital structure is based off of tetrahedral with 1 lone pair therefore it should be 107o but Wikipedia says its 91.7? why is this?
Title: Re: Stibine (SbH3) has a trigonal pyramidal structure but it has 91.7o bond angles?
Post by: Schrödinger on October 19, 2012, 02:59:20 PM
As you go down the group towards heavier elements, you find that the p-orbitals start participating in the bonding rather than the atomic orbitals getting hybridized.

I don't exactly know what it's called, but I remember having read this under 'Drago's rule' somewhere. But I'm not really sure. Someone please verify this.