Examples of Square Planar Molecules?

[noelle_lipschutz_3F]

What are common molecules that have square planar shape? How does this shape affect their function?

[Mary Gallo 1G]

One common square planar molecule is XeF4 (we saw this molecule in lecture). Due to the geometry of this molecule, the polar covalent bonds have dipoles that cancel (equal and opposite directions) and the electron lone pairs are on opposite sides of the central atom. This means that all charges cancel and the molecule is nonpolar. All molecules with this geometry will be nonpolar.

[Justin Nguyen 3E]

To add on to what Mary said, square planar molecules are molecules with 6 regions of electron density with two of them being lone pairs. With XeF4, the two lone pairs at the top and bottom of the Xe atom cause the F atoms to be spread out 90 degrees from each other on the same plane.

[Steph Du 1H]

In response to your question about shape, shape can affect the function of enzymes, for example, since enzymes have a specific shape to their active site that allows molecules to bind/not bind with them.

[CesarLec1]

To add onto what the other have said above, since for example XeF4 has 2 free electron pairs, it is able to create two more covalent bonds instead of the usual 1 extra covalent bond that we usually see.

[apurva-3E]

XeF4

[Jason Knight - 1F]

Square planar molecules have the VSEPR Notation of AX4E2 which is four bonded atoms and two sets of lone pairs. An example of this molecular shape would be XeF4.

[Marc Lubman 3B]

A coordination complex example you may be familiar with would be cisplatin, the chemotherapy drug that we learned about. It's square planar structure is what allows it to have the polarity that leads to it getting stuck to DNA, which is what interferes with replication and kills cancer (and other) cells.

[Neha Jonnalagadda 2D]

A common example of a square planar molecule is XeF4. XeF4 can help find and analyze trace metals that contaminate rubber.

[Abigail Tran 14a]

XeF4 is a common molecule with a square planar geometry