EXPANDED OCTET

[chrisdinkel_4E]

Why can group 13 elements have incomplete octets?

[Nada AbouHaiba 1I]

In order for them to have a complete octet they would need to create 5 bonds and that doesn't happen

[404905747]

can all elements in group 13 have incomplete octet?

[Brian Chang 2H]

Technically, any element in the 3rd row of the periodic table (and beyond) can form an expanded octet.

Realistically, we only see it for the p-block elements in the 3rd row and beyond. (Ie. P, S, CL)

This is because elements in the 3rd have access to the 3-d-orbitals so they can have more than 8 electrons in a shell.

The octet guideline itself comes from the S and P orbitals, which can hold 2 and 6 electrons respectively. Hence, 8 for octet. So it's only really a rule up till Neon.

[Bijan Mehdizadeh 1B]

Like Brian said, any element in period 3 and beyond can have an expanded octet. If it makes it easier, I think of it this way: the element in period 2 that has the most amount of ground state electrons is Ne. Ne had 10 e-, but with those 10, it is stable, whereas fluorine has 9 e- and is likely to want to lose an e- to have an octet. However, the elements in the third row like Na and Al all have more electrons than 10 and are less likely to form an octet due to the fact that they would have to lose an exorbitant amount of e- for that to happen, which is chemically unlikely.

[isarose0]

Group 13 elements can have expanded octets because they have access to their 3-d orbital since its not filled