Octahedral

[MaryBanh_2K]

What is the difference between octahedral, square pyramidal, and square planar?

[005321227]

The shape of the orbitals is octahedral. One orbital contains a lone pair of electrons so the remaining five atoms connected to the central atom gives the molecule a square pyramidal shape

[William Chan 1D]

All of the mentioned shapes have 6 pairs of electrons around the central atom. What differs is how many lone pairs and bonding pairs each has.

Octahedral structures have 6 bonding pairs and 0 lone pairs.

Square pyramidal structures have 5 bonding pairs and 1 lone pair. This one, as the name suggests, looks like a square pyramid.

Square planar structures have 4 bonding pairs and 2 lone pairs. This one looks like a square, but unlike the tetrahedral structure, the bonding pairs are spread out in one plane, giving it a cross or square shape.

[Shail Avasthi 2C]

All three have the 6 regions of electron density arranged as an octahedral. The difference is in the number of lone pairs and the number of bonding regions. If the molecular shape is an octahedral, then it has 6 bonding regions (i.e. 6 atoms bound to the central atom). If the molecular shape is square pyramidal, then it has 5 bonding regions and 1 lone pair. If the molecular shape is square planar, then it has 4 bonding regions and 2 lone pairs.

[Jedrick Zablan 3L]

The presence of lone pairs and number of bonded atoms is the difference in the shapes. Octahedral has no lone pairs with 6 bonded atoms. Square Pyramidal has one lone pair with 5 bonded atoms. Square planar has two lone pairs with 4 bonded atoms. The single lone pair of Square Pyramidal creates a repulsion that results in the pyramid shape. The double lone pair of Square Planar balances out to create the planar shape.

[Megan Jung 3A]

All three have 6 regions of electrons either bonded or lone pairs. Octahedral has 6 bonding regions and 0 lone pairs. Square pyramid has 5 bonds and 1 lone pair. Square planar has 4 bonds and 2 lone pairs.