Chemistry I – Lecture 7
Chemical Bonding II-
Hybridisation
Davies Mweta PhD
Department of Basic Sciences
Institute of Technology
Malawi University of Science and Technology
P.O. Box 5196, Limbe. Malawi
1
Objectives
By the end of this lesson students should be
able to:
1. Predict hybridizations of atoms in a
molecule.
2. Draw orbitals of atoms before and after
hybridization.
3. Describe composition of single, double
and triple bonds.
2
Valence Bond Theory…..
• Valence bond method considers the covalent bond as a result
of overlap of atomic orbitals.
– Electrons stay in regions between the two atoms.
• For example:
s-s s-p p-p
H-H H-C C-C
Li-H H-N P-P
• However, overlapping of simple atomic orbitals does not
explain all the features.
– For example: one of the issues that arose on bonding was that the
number of partially filled or empty atomic orbitals did not predict the
number of bonds or orientation of bonds
3
Valence Bond Theory-
Hybridisation
• Consider carbon atom
– C = 2s22px12py12pz0, hence one would predict 2 or 3 bonds, but
carbon usually forms 4 bonds.
– The overlap of these orbitals does not give a satisfactory explanation.
– What happens then? How?
• We need to take another look, or do something about
atomic orbitals – hybridisation.
• In order to explain bonding, it was postulated that the valence
atomic orbitals could hybridise before bonding took place.
• Hybridisation refers to combination of atomic orbitals to form a new
set of orbitals – this method is called hybridization.
4
Hybridization
• Some atoms hybridize their orbitals to maximize
bonding
– hybridizing is mixing different types of orbitals to make a
new set of degenerate (same level in energy) orbitals
– sp, sp2, sp3, sp3d, sp3d2
– more bonds = more full orbitals = more stability
• Same type of atom can have different hybridization
depending on the compound
– C = sp, sp2, sp3
• Hydrogen can not hybridize!!
5
Hybrid Orbitals
• Key points
– The number of hybrid orbitals obtained equals the
number of atomic orbitals mixed.
– The type of hybrid orbitals obtained varies with the
types of atomic orbitals mixed.
• Types of hybrid orbitals:
– sp
– sp2
– sp3
– sp3d
– sp3d2
6
Hybridizations of Carbon
Unhybridized
2s 2p
sp hybridized
2sp 2p
sp2 hybridized
2sp2 2p
sp3 hybridized
7
2sp 3
The sp hybrid orbitals in
gaseous BeCl2
atomic
orbitals
hybrid
orbitals
orbital box diagrams
The sp hybrid orbitals in gaseous BeCl2……
orbital box diagrams with orbital contours
The sp2 hybrid orbitals in BF3
sp3 Hybridized Atoms
Orbital Diagrams
Unhybridized atom sp3 hybridized atom
C
2s 2p 2sp3
N
2s 2p 2sp3
The sp3 hybrid orbitals in CH4
The sp3 hybrid orbitals in NH3
The sp3 hybrid orbitals in H2O
The sp3d hybrid orbitals in PCl5
The sp3d2 hybrid orbitals in SF6
Types of Bonds
• a sigma (s) bond results when the bonding atomic
orbitals point along the axis connecting the two
bonding nuclei
– either standard atomic orbitals or hybrids
• s-to-s, p-to-p, hybrid-to-hybrid, s-to-hybrid, etc.
• a pi (p) bond results when the bonding atomic
orbitals are parallel to each other and perpendicular
to the axis connecting the two bonding nuclei
– between unhybridized parallel p orbitals
• the interaction between parallel orbitals is not as
strong as between orbitals that point at each other;
therefore s bonds are stronger than p bonds
17
18
Types of Bonds
• A single bond is simply one sigma bond.
• a double bond is composed of one sigma bond
and one pi bond.
• a triple bond is composed of one sigma bond
and two pi bonds.
19
Bond Rotation
• because orbitals that form the s bond point
along the internuclear axis, rotation around
that bond does not require breaking the
interaction between the orbitals
• but the orbitals that form the p bond
interact above and below the internuclear
axis, so rotation around the axis requires the
breaking of the interaction between the
orbitals
20
21
