Sunday, March 13, 2016

Shapes of Molecules

There are five shapes of molecules that we have learned about so far:

Tetrahedral:
Have four bonded entities around a central atom. Its shape and geometry are both tetrahedral. These molecules are not flat, symmetrical, non-polar, and have identical bond angles.

Trigonal Pyramidal:
Have three bonded entities and one lone pair of electrons on the central atom. Its shape is trigonal pyramidal, while its geometry is tetrahedral. These molecules have no symmetry and are polar.

Bent:
Have two bonded entities and two lone pairs of electrons on the central atom. Its shape is bent, while its geometry is tetrahedral.

Linear:
Have two bonded entities and no lone pairs of electrons on the central atom. Its shape and geometry are both linear.

Trigonal Planar:
Have three bonded entities and no lone pairs of electrons on the central atom. Its shape and geometry are both trigonal planar. These molecules are non-polar.

Here is a picture of a few of the shapes listed above, and an example of their Lewis Structure:

Source for above picture

Here is a website that I found that explains these shapes more in-depth, and even has practice games on it: Molecular Shapes


3 comments:

  1. Carly, I found your post very detailed and educational! I like how you first went through the main five different molecular shapes, describing their geometry and polarity. Then, you reinforced your explanations with pictures that presented the new concept. Finally, I like how your link established the key concepts of the shapes of molecules and had a table that compared all the different shapes.

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  2. This post helps a lot when trying to remember details about the shapes!

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  3. I really liked that you explained each one! you didn't just use a picture and that actually helped clear up a lot for me!

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