## bond angles and increasing s-character

$sp, sp^{2}, sp^{3}, dsp^{3}, d^{2}sp^{3}$

CaminaB_1D
Posts: 63
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:16 am

### bond angles and increasing s-character

Can someone please explain why the bond angles increase as the s-character of a hybrid orbital increases

Elisa Bass 4L
Posts: 61
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:23 am

### Re: bond angles and increasing s-character

S-character basically refers to what fraction of the hybridized orbital is made up from the s-orbital. For example, sp has greater s-character than sp^2. Because there are fewer sp hybridized orbitals than there are sp^2 hybridized orbitals, 2 versus 3, as the s-character increases and the number of orbitals decrease, the orbitals are located farther apart from each other. Therefore, the bond angles increase.

Ana Pedreros
Posts: 62
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:19 am

### Re: bond angles and increasing s-character

The s character basically means the percentage of sigma bond in a hybridization. In a linear lewis structure there is a hybridization of sp. This has an s character of 50% and a p character of 50%. The bond angle is 180. Now if we look at a trigonal planar lewis structure, there is a decreased bond angle of 120 and a new hybridization of sp2. The percentage of the sigma bond decreases to 33%. Since s character and bond angles are directly proportional, as one increases, so does the other.