Chemistry › Section H · Advanced theories of covalent bonding › Topic H.2
Hybrid atomic orbitals
Carbon has only two unpaired electrons, yet methane has four identical bonds pointing to the corners of a tetrahedron. Hybrid orbitals reconcile valence bond theory with the shapes VSEPR predicts, and one count of electron groups tells you which hybrids an atom uses.
In this topic
- A puzzle in methane
- The idea of hybridisation
- sp³ hybrids: four groups
- Lone pairs occupy hybrids too
- sp² hybrids: three groups
- sp hybrids: two groups
- Five and six groups
- Assigning hybridisation step by step
- Worked example: phosphorus in PCl₃ and PCl₅
- Worked example: xenon tetrafluoride
- Common mistakes to avoid
- Key takeaways
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