square planar vs tetrahedral

[Midori Hupfeld 3D]

Do we know how to tell the difference between a square planar complex and a tetrahedral complex from the formula?

[J Medina 2I]

Square planar has 6 electron dense regions but two of those are lone pairs, making the formula AX4E2 whereas tetrahedral only has 4 electron dense regions, all of which are bonds to another atom, making the formula AX4. The two lone pairs in a square planar molecule repulse the 4 bonds to form a square shape and have their angles be 90 degrees.

[Jade Hinds 2B]

in a tetrahedral the central atom is surrounded by 4 substituent atoms vs in a square planar the central atom is surrounded by any amount of substituent atoms

[Charysa Santos 4G]

Using the VSEPR formula, AX4 is tetrahedral because it has no lone pairs (E). However, if it is AX4E2, the shape is square planar because the two lone pairs of electrons cause the bonded electrons to be arranged in a square shape, which allows them to be farthest from one another.

[Tahlia Mullins]

I found it extremely helpful to make a chart with the steric number as the “y-axis” and the number of lone pairs as the “x-axis” for the molecular shapes. This would make the difference between shapes more obvious.

[Megan Jung 3A]

The VSEPR formula for a square planar molecule is AX4E2 and tetrahedral is AX4.