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Why is SF4 Polar?

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 12:14 am
by Antonio Melgoza 2K
Why is SF4 polar? It's a seesaw shape and trigonal bipyramidal and the dipoles point towards F, but shouldn't that mean that it is nonpolar?

Re: Why is SF4 Polar?

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2015 1:31 am
by Roshni Kumar 1E
No, because the seesaw shape itself is asymmetrical thus implying that SF4 is polar. Also since F is more electronegative than S and when the lewis structure is drawn out with dipole moments it can be seen that the dipole moment is not zero, that also means that SF4 is polar.