Lone Pairs and Dipole Moments/Polarity

[805909756]

If a central atom has a lone pair on it, how does this affect bond dipoles to the polarity of a molecule?

[806020644 3I]

If the central atom has a lone pair, this is likely to affect the symmetry of the molecule or create dipole moments. If the molecule is asymmetrical or has uneven sharing of electrons, it will be polar rather than non polar..

[Sarai B]

hello,

When a central atom in a molecule has a lone pair, it can influence the overall polarity of the molecule. The presence of a lone pair introduces asymmetry into the molecule, affecting the distribution of electron density and the arrangement of atoms.

[306052637]

I believe that the main thing about lone pairs is that it can change the shape of the molecule, which can cause a molecule to have dipole moments that no longer cancel each other out. A great example of this is H2O, which has 2 bonds and 2 lone pairs. Without the lone pairs, it would be a linear molecule and the dipoles would point from H to O to cancel out. However because it is actually bent, the dipoles still point from H to O but the direction doesn't cancel out, resulting in a polar molecule.