Expanded Octets

[Sean Wang 1F]

Can expanded octets be expanded even further past 10 valence electrons to like 12,14 or can valence shells only be expanded to 10.

[kateraelDis1L]

Yes! they can be expanded further than 10.

[AmyHo2K]

They can be expanded past 10 when they're in the f block.

[Kathy_Li_1H]

Hi! Octets can expand past 10 electrons. For example, atoms with electrons in the f-block (atoms in group 3 and after + periods of 6 or later).

[Sophia Spungin 2E]

They can be expanded further! For example, when Xe bonds with 4 fluorine atoms, it can make 4 single bonds and have 2 lone pairs and still have a formal charge of zero, giving it 12 valence electrons! (4 bonds+2 lone pairs= 8, 8-8=0). A lot of the time I like to think about expanded octets in terms of formal charge.

[Jonathan Banh 1G]

Expanded octets can include those past 10 electrons, meaning valence shells with 12 are valid. For example, take sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). If we draw out its Lewis structure, it becomes clear that S, the central atom, has an expanded octet of 12 electrons. I am not 100% sure about valence shells with 14 electrons because I do not think I have ever seen one, but I think for our purposes in this class, we probably will not be tested on anything above 12. I do not think that you have to worry about this concept too much as long as you know the methodology behind creating a proper Lewis structure.

[Talia Dini - 3I]

Yes! Expanded octets can be expanded even further past 10 valence electrons.

[Ke Huang 2G]

Depending on the situation, expanded octets can expand more than 10 valence electrons.

[David Jen 1J]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know if there is a certain max number of electrons in a expanded octet?

[Yuehan_Wu_3K]

The reason that atoms can have expanded octets is that it have d orbital, which can contain more than 10 electrons.

[rhettfarmer-3H]

Yeah, they can a common one is S. S is commonly seen with over 10 valence electrons. SF6 has 12 electrons on the one sulfur molecule and it is seen to be found and a molecule so yes.

[Izamary Marquez 2H]

Does the number of electrons in an expanded octet depend on the block that the atom is in?