{"id":11040,"date":"2017-10-10T17:15:31","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T22:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.masterorganicchemistry.com\/?p=11040"},"modified":"2026-04-22T12:31:37","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:31:37","slug":"hybrid-orbitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.masterorganicchemistry.com\/2017\/10\/10\/hybrid-orbitals\/","title":{"rendered":"Hybrid Orbitals and Hybridization"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s post is all about hybrid orbitals<\/strong>. Here’s a quick summary:<\/p>\n

\"summary-of-hybrid-orbitals-sp3-sp2-and-sp-relationship-between-hybridization-and-geomertry-with-examples\"<\/p>\n

[Note: This\u00a0post was co-authored with Matthew Pierce of\u00a0Organic Chemistry Solutions<\/a>.\u00a0 Ask Matt about scheduling an online tutoring session\u00a0here<\/a>. ]<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What Orbitals Are Involved In The Tetrahedral Arrangement Of C-H Bonds Around Carbon In Methane (CH4<\/sub>)?<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Hybrid Orbitals: An Explanation For Bonding At Carbon<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. A Pop Analogy: Hybrid Soda<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. sp3<\/sup><\/span> Hybridization Accurately Describes The Arrangement Of Atoms In (First-Row) Elements Bonded To Four Atoms…<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  5. …As Well As Situations Where The Number of [Atoms + Lone Pairs] Equals 4<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. sp2<\/sup><\/span> Hybridization<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
  7. sp Hybridization<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. Summary – Hybrid Orbitals<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Notes<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. Quiz Yourself!<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    <\/a>1. What Orbitals Are Involved In The Tetrahedral Arrangement Of Methane (CH4<\/sub>)?<\/h2>\n

    In the last post on the structure of methane we asked how we know that methane is tetrahedral (See Article: How Do We Know That Methane Is Tetrahedral<\/a><\/em><\/span>).<\/p>\n

    Based on the orbitals of carbon (2s<\/em> and 2p<\/em>) we might have naively expected three of the C-H bonds to line up along the x, y, and z axes, respectively, and have the other one at some arbitrary angle (like 125\u00b0 or so<\/span>)<\/em><\/p>\n

    But then, as so often happens in science, our beautiful intuitive hypothesis was destroyed by some annoying experimental facts:<\/p>\n