Lone Pairs & Hybridization

[Jacquelyn Challis 2B]

Do lone pairs come into play in hybridization? If a molecule has a lone pair, I know it affects the shape so how does that correlate to the hybridization?

[Selena Quispe 2I]

Yes lone pairs do affect hybridization. For example if your Oxygen has three lone pairs and one bonding pair then your hybridization would be sp3. Attached below are more examples! I hope this helps and good luck studying!!

[Marc Lubman 3B]

Yes indeed the lone pair does contribute to hybridization. Hybridization depends on the number of RHED's, Regions of High Electron Density. Lone pairs are considered RHED's and thus each pair should be counted when determining the number of hybrid orbitals.

[Helena Xu 3L]

Lone pairs do affect hybridization because a lone pair counts as a region of electron density and the hybridization scheme is based off of the number of regions of electron density.

[Arya Adibi 1K]

As previously stated by other students, all regions of electron density are considered for hybridization. If there are:
2 regions of e- density -> sp
3 regions of e- density -> sp2
4 regions of e- density -> sp3
5 regions of e- density -> dsp3
6 regions of e- density -> d2sp3
etc

[Kelly Tran 1J]

Yes, lone pairs come into play in hybridization since it is a region of electron density and regions of electron density contribute to hybridization.

[jessicasilverstein1F]

yes. you should take into account lone pairs in hybridization. they are considered regions of electron density