Tetrahedral shape

[Tatiana 4B]

How can a molecule have a slightly distorted tetrahedral shape?

[904914909]

A molecule could have a distorted tetrahedral shape due to lone pair repulsion that causes bond angles to be less than suggested by the VSEPR model

[Hannah Yates 1K]

A molecule can always be slightly distorted. This can happen because of what atoms are attached to central atom. If all 4 of the attached atoms are the same, then you will have a normal tetrahedral shape, but the second that one of the atoms are different, there will be a slight distortion to the molecule.

[taryn_baldus2E]

Any molecular shape can be slightly distorted when different atoms are bonded to the central atom due to their different numbers of valence shell electrons and the role they play in repulsing the other atoms of the molecule.

[AvaGordon_4F]

Distortion in a tetrahedral molecule can also be due to the size of the atoms involved in the bonding interactions. If all of the surrounding atoms are the same element, then the bond angles will all be the same because the bonded atoms will all have the same atomic radius. If they're different, they will necessarily have different atomic radii and therefore exert slightly different repulsion on one another, causing distortion.

[Rachel Dang 1H]

Professor Lavelle mentioned in lecture that like other said above a molecule can always be distorted. For example CCl₄ is nonpolar since all of the dipole moments cancel out and is unlikely to be distorted however for a similar molecule that does have an overall dipole moment due to having two bonds that are not the same, it has a higher chance of being distorted.