Square Planar vs. Tetrahedral [ENDORSED]

[Maaria Abdel-Moneim 2G]

Hello! In lecture, Dr. Lavelle explained that with coordination compounds the 3 main shapes we will see are octahedral, tetrahedral, and square planar. I was just wondering how we are supposed to tell the difference between square planar and tetrahedral since both have them have 4 surrounding ligands.

[Mary Gallo 1G]

Octahedral involves 6 bonded atoms attached to the central atom (AX6).

Tetrahedral involves 4 bonded atoms attached to the central atom (AX4).
Square Planar involves 4 bonded atoms and 2 lone pairs attached to the central atom (AX4E2).
While both tetrahedral and square planar have 4 bonded atoms, square planar also has 2 lone pairs attached to the central atom, this causes the change in shape.

A represents the central atom, X represents the bonded atoms, and E represents the lone pairs in the formulas above.

The first image is square planar and the second image is tetrahedral:

[Juwon Lim 2A]

In addition to the person above, Professor Lavelle said we will not need to distinguish between square planar and tetrahedral shapes for coordination compounds. If there are 6 bonds, the shape is octahedral, and if there are 4 bonds, the shape can be either square planar or tetrahedral.

[Kiyoka Kim 3C]

I believe you don't have to know which one when looking at coordination compounds with a coordination number of 4, but you may want to remember some of the biological examples like the heme complex that is a square planar.

[Jaclyn Dang 3B]

As said before, we just need to know that four is either tetrahedral or square planar, but no need to distinguish between them.

[Justin Lin 1B]

At least for 14A, we wouldn't have to determine if the coordination compound is square planar or tetrahedral.

[Daniela Santana 2L]

Hi!
A square planar complex has four bonded atoms and 2 electron pairs. A tetrahedral complex only has four atoms bonded to it (no electron pairs). You can distinguish by drawing out the molecule's lewis structure and seeing if the central atom has lone pairs or not. Hope this helps :)

[jasmineculilap_3F]

Tetrahedral shapes are AX4, so there are only 4 bonded atoms while square planar is AX4E2, so it has 2 more lone pairs.

[Kyle_Lee_2B]

the square planer is much rarer than tetrahedral shaped molecules. The square planer needs 4 bonding atoms and 2 lone pairs, while tetrahedral just needs 4 bonding atoms.

[Chinyere Okeke 2J]

This was a nice review for me of molecular shapes! Tetrahedral is when there are 4 bonding e- pairs bonded to the central atom, while square planar is when there are 6 regions of e- density around the central atom but 4 are bonding e- pairs and 2 are lone e- pairs!

[Valerie Tran 2B]

I think the difference between tetrahedral and square planar is related to their hybridization configurations. Additionally, I think that a square planar configuration is in one plane whereas tetrahedral is in multiple planes. The square planar also has 2 lone pair vs tetrahedral has no lone pairs

[Giselle_zamora_1L]

Both involve bonding to 4 ligands, square planar has an additional 2 lone pairs while tetrahedral had 0

[Malakai Espinosa 3E]

In terms of coordination compounds, we wont learn how to tell the difference between square planar and tetrahedral until other quarters of chem, but for VSEPR the difference is that square planar has two extra sets of lone pairs in addition to the 4 bonded atoms.

[Brandon Gruender 3F]

Tetrahedral has 4 bonds to atoms, and no lone pairs (AX4). Square planar has 4 bonds to atoms, and 2 lone pairs(AX4E2).

[Logan Wiedemann 3J]

The only difference is that square planar has two lone pairs and tetrahedral molecules do not!

[Anthony_Sandoval_1D]

Through the use of a Lewis Structure you are able to see that a tetrahedral complex has four atoms bonded to it without any electron pairs. On the other hand, a square planar complex has four atoms bonded to it and 2 electron pairs.

[JohnathanH_1H]

The difference between Square Planar and Tetrahedral is that Square Planar has 6 regions of electron density with 2 lone pairs were as tetrahedral only has 4 regions of electron density.

[Martha Avila 1I]

Hello! So you will be able to distinguish between tetrahedral and square planar. Square planar has 4 bonding regions and 2 lone pairs while tetrahedral has 4 bonding regions only. Overall you need to determine if there are lone pairs on the central atom and this will give you your shape. Hope this helps.

[Do Yeun Park]

Hi!
Square planar has 2 sets of lone pairs which means that square planar has 6 areas of electron density. On the other hand, tetrahedral has 0 sets of lone pairs and has 4 areas of electron density.