March 29, 2024, 06:35:35 AM
Forum Rules: Read This Before Posting


Topic: Hybrid orbitals  (Read 924 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline MarioVy

  • Very New Member
  • *
  • Posts: 1
  • Mole Snacks: +0/-0
Hybrid orbitals
« on: February 11, 2020, 01:20:20 PM »
Hello!

First of all excuse me for my English, it's not my first language but I'm trying my best!

So I've got a few questions for you guys. they are probably really simple but i just can't figure them out for myself 100%, hopefully someone can help me out here :D

Q1:As far as I'm informed, if a carbon atom is bonding with three other atoms it creates three hybrid orbitals sp^2.
These are now supposed to be in an angle of 120° to each other.. but what happened with the left over p orbital it's still there but where is it placed and why doesn't it affect the angle?

Q2: If the carbon atom bonds with two other atoms why does it still have to create these hybrid orbitals,why can't it just use it's two p-orbitals since they've only got one electron in it?

The only solution i could think of is that it can only bond with the hybrid orbitals but that still doesn't really explain to me why the loose electron in the leftover p orbital in question 1 doesn't effect the angle. Thanks in advance!

Offline chenbeier

  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1348
  • Mole Snacks: +102/-22
  • Gender: Male
Re: Hybrid orbitals
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2020, 01:56:14 PM »
Look from different views. sp2 happens if one double bond is on that atom.

Like H2C=O, R1R2C= NH, R-C(OH)=S, etc.
The last orbital you are talking is the pi-Orbital of the doublebond.


Offline hollytara

  • Chemist
  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 317
  • Mole Snacks: +39/-0
Re: Hybrid orbitals
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2020, 08:11:17 PM »
SO hybridization is something we do because it makes it easier for us (humans) to visualize the bonding. 

Hybridization makes some predictions that we find to be untrue by experiment. 

BUT we still use it - just like we use resonance and Lewis structures - because it is a useful simplification.  So your second question - that is what it does, but it can be hard to visualize how all the atomic orbitals of a system mix together.  It is easier to visualize if we  prem-ix them on each atom (hybridization).
For sp2 - three sp2 hybrids in a plane (call it xz) remaining  orbital is orthogonal (90 degrees) to that plane - y axis.


Offline rolnor

  • Chemist
  • Sr. Member
  • *
  • Posts: 2205
  • Mole Snacks: +149/-10
Re: Hybrid orbitals
« Reply #3 on: February 12, 2020, 12:50:15 PM »

Sponsored Links