Molecular Shape

[Alyssa Wilson 2A]

Can someone please give an overview of when you would end up with a seesaw structure?

[Matthew Choi 2H]

Imagine a molecule with the VSEPR formula, AX4E1. There is a central atom with 4 bonds and one lone pair. The electron geometry for this molecule would be trigonal bipyramidal: one bond going straight up, one bond going straight down, and three on the equatorial plane. However, the formula AX4E1 has a lone pair which occupies one of the three bond areas along the equatorial plane. If you can imagine the rest of the structure, it will look like a seesaw with the remaining bonds occupying the rest of the bonds mentioned before.

[Samantha Ito 2E]

A seesaw structure occurs when the electron geometry is trigonal bipyramidal and there are 4 bonds to the central atom and 1 lone pair to the central atom.

[Samantha Ito 2E]

Hope this helps you to visualize it!

[Niveda_B_3I]

The arrangement of the electron density would be trigonal bipyramidal, but the arrangement of the atoms would be tetrahedral, since there's a lone pair. As a result, you would end up with seesaw structure.

[LedaKnowles2E]

A seesaw structure happens whenever an atom is surrounded by four atoms and one lone electron pair, or AX4E1.

[davidryan3f]

A molecule with a seesaw molecular geometry will have a total of 5 electron domains and one of them will be a lone pair of electrons. The molecule will have angles of 120, 180, and 90 degrees at various locations.

[Andrewwiner4D]

There are four bonded atoms and one lone pair. The angles of the bonded atoms are 90, 90>angle>180, and 180. Mostly the four bonded atoms are tetrahedral, but the lone pair pushes down the atoms.