{"id":983,"date":"2010-10-13T15:13:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-13T13:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/masterorganicchemistry.wordpress.com\/?p=983"},"modified":"2026-01-06T16:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T22:34:16","slug":"sigma-bonds-come-in-six-varieties-pi-bonds-come-in-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.masterorganicchemistry.com\/2010\/10\/13\/sigma-bonds-come-in-six-varieties-pi-bonds-come-in-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Sigma bonds come in six varieties: Pi bonds come in one"},"content":{"rendered":"

You may recall from Gen chem (and no doubt your first week of o-chem as well), that orbitals on carbon come in two flavors: s and p.<\/p>\n

s orbitals<\/strong> should be familiar as\u00a0the spherical-shaped orbitals. The electrons of hydrogen, for instance, are in a 1s orbital.<\/p>\n

p orbitals<\/strong> are shaped like figure-eights, or loops. The electrons in p orbitals are slightly farther away from the nucleus than those in s orbitals, so they are a little bit higher in energy. The p orbitals therefore fill with electrons only after the s orbitals are filled.<\/p>\n

Hybridization<\/em> is a concept that\u00a0 we address here.<\/p>\n

\"summary-sigma<\/a><\/p>\n

What’s observed from analyzing the structure of molecules such as CH4<\/sub> is that the shapes cannot result from the electrons being in s or p orbitals alone, but instead are a consequence of the electrons in s and p orbitals mixing to form hybrid <\/em>orbitals. If you draw an analogy to how we could make a “hybrid” soft drink by\u00a0 mixing different proportions of Sprite and Pepsi, these new orbitals aren’t fully s or fully p, but are a combination of both. The “flavor” of each bond depends on the relative proportions of s orbital and p orbital content:<\/p>\n