sp and sp2

[705340227]

I know that the sp3 orbital has four hybrid orbitals, but what do the sp and sp2 orbitals look like? Also, why do we need to do sp or sp2 instead of sp3 in some instances?

[Mackenzie Fernandez 3G]

hi!

I am a bit confused on this as well. I was thinking along the lines of the number of bonds/lone pairs the atom has. so when you mark the electrons within sp/sp2/sp3 you should be reflecting how many bonds and lone pairs there are. So two arrows would mean a lone pair and one arrow would mean a bond??

I am not 100% confident in my answer. Hope someone can clarify!

[keely_bales_1f]

I am pretty sure we don't need to know what these orbitals look like, rather we just have to know what the hybridization of a molecule will be based off the number of electron densities present on the central atom. However, I would ask this question in office hours with Lavelle to double check!

[Danielle Goldwirth 3F]

When asked to hybridize, we need to focus on the number of regions of electron densities.
If there are 4 regions, this will lead to sp3 as it allows for conservation of the number of orbitals (regions of e- density = # of hybrid orbitals).
For this same reason, 3 regions results in sp2, 2 regions results in sp, and 1 region (such as on an H atom) results in s.

[Reese_Gover2K]

So the hybridization corresponds to the # of regions of electron density. So an sp3 orbital has 4 regions of electron density, and sp2 has 3 regions, and an sp has 2 regions. Knowing what they look like is pretty much just knowing the shape. For example, an sp3 orbital has 4 regions of electron density and is a tetrahedral shape. Hope this helps :)

[Will Skinner]

The sp, sp2, and sp3 hybrid orbitals are all different.

sp corresponds to 2 regions of electron density.
sp2 corresponds to 3 regions of electron density.
sp3 corresponds to 4 regions of electron density.

[RitaThomas_3G]

All the different hybridizations are determined by the number of regions of electron density. So, we can see that sp has 2, sp2 has 3, sp3 has 4, etc.

The regions of electron density are shown by a bond (single, double, and triple bonds are all 1 region) or lone pairs.

[Tobie Jessup 2E]

Hybridization correlates to the number of regions of electron density! Dr. Lavelle outlines them in the lecture from Monday 11/23 which has been very helpful for me.