VSEPR

[jane_ni_2d]

how can you find the shape of GeF4 molecule?

[rachana_korapati3C]

You would need to first draw the lewis structure for the compound, and then see how many bonds the molecule has and how many lone pairs the central atom as. Depending on that final number, you can determine the shape and the corresponding bond angle.

[Max Hayama 4K]

Ge has 4 valence electrons, and there are four fluorines surrounding it. Therefore you can assume that it will form 4 single bonds with each fluorine. Just to be safe, you can count the amount of valence electrons for all the atoms, which is 32, and subtract 8 from the 4 single bonds. You're left with 24 electrons, which means 6 lone pair electrons for each fluorine. The formal charge for each atom is now 0. Therefore the shape is tetrahedral.

[705192887]

After completing the Lewis Dot structure, GeF4 has 4 single bonds and no lone pairs around the central atom. Therefore, from VSEPR, the shape is tetrahedral.

[Alexandra Albers 1D]

Also, since GeF4 has only bonded pairs of electrons, the bond angles are 109.5 degrees, but if there were unbonded electron pairs they would push the other atoms further away and make the bond angles smaller.

[Kessandra Ng 1K]

Adding to this post, if you knew the AXE 'formula' of GeF4, you could use that to determine the shape easily also, since all molecules with that particular AXE 'formula' would have the same shape! Therefore from there, you can also get the bond angles.

[mbaker4E]

When first learning VSEPR shapes I would recommend googling "VSEPR Geometry" in images and going off of that table until you memorize the shapes because it it very easy to follow. Steric number refers to how many bonds (single, double, or triple) AND electron pairs surround the shape.