SF4 has Exactly 5 Electron Pairs Around Central Atom

  • Thread starter Thread starter gsingh2011
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Atom Electron
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Ask a follow-up in this thread, or start your own.
1 reply · 4K views
gsingh2011
Messages
115
Reaction score
1
The question is: Which species has exactly five pairs of electrons around
the central atom?
(A) ClF5 (B) SF4 (C) SF5 (D) XeF4

The answer is B. Can someone explain why? I'm not too good with these geometries that use the d-orbital.
 
Chemistry news on Phys.org
There are no d orbitals involved. You just have to count the number of valence electrons. In the first example there are 7 electrons from Cl and 5 from Fluorine, i.e. 12 in total or six pairs. Analogously for the other cases.