Regions of Electron Density & Naming Hybrid Orbitals

[Michelle_Nguyen_3F]

Hello!

My understanding of how to find the type of hybrid orbitals is to just count the regions of the electron densities and ensure that I have the corresponding hybrid orbital. For example, if there were to be three regions of electron density around the central atom, that means that the central atom would have hybrid orbitals. Is my reasoning correct?

Further, when classifying what type of bond exists between two atoms, would we consider the hybrid orbitals of each atom separately and then the type of bond (sigma or pi) between them?

Thank you so much!

[Chem_Mod]

Yes to both.

But remember as I discussed in class pi-bonds are formed as a result of the side-by-side overlap of p orbitals.

[Maddy_Larson_2J]

Do we count loan pairs as regions of electron density? I know we do not typically draw them in Lewis structures but I am not sure about counting them in hybridization. Thank you!

[Jeannie_Kim_1I]

When determining hybridization, we look at the Lewis structure and count lone pairs (and bonding pairs) as regions of electron density. And we do, whenever necessary, include lone pairs when we draw Lewis structures, meaning it is not considered atypical for a Lewis structure to have lone pairs.