The methane molecule is a good example of this:Ī methane molecule, CH4. Any standard straight lines simply show a planar bond.Lone pairs of electrons are shown as dots.Dotted or dashed lines show a bond going into the screen or page away from you.Wedged lines show a bond coming out of the screen or page towards you.However, if we want to better show a molecule’s 3D shape, we can use wedged and dotted lines. This gives a simple picture of molecules. You might remember that we can draw covalent bonds as a line between two atoms. How do you draw the shapes of molecules in 3D?īefore we look at any examples of covalent structures, we need to learn how you can represent them. Check out Covalent and Dative Bonding to remind yourself of how atoms share electrons in order to achieve stable electron configurations. It simply uses our knowledge of the behaviour of electrons to predict the shape of simple covalent compounds. VSEPR states that electron pairs all repel each other and will try to take up positions as far away from each other as possible, in order to minimise repulsion. Because the valence electrons in a simple covalent molecule are the bonded electrons, electron pair repulsion determines the way in which the bonds are positioned. An atom’s outer shell of electrons is known as its valence shell. Because electrons are charged particles, electron pairs will repel each other and try to be as far away from each other as possible. This is because orbitals, which are regions of space where electrons can be found 95 percent of the time, can contain at most two electrons (check out Electron Shells, Subshells, and Orbitals for a refresher). You should know that electrons tend to go around in pairs. If we break that term down a little, we can understand what it means. Valence shell electron pair repulsion theory, or VSEPR, is a model used in chemistry to predict the shape of molecules.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |