Hybrid orbitals

[Deborah Cheng 1F]

How can you determine the number of hybrid orbitals?

[Nancy Le - 1F]

You can determine the number of hybrid orbitals by looking at the regions of electron density. Different shapes indicate different hybrids of valence atomic orbitals during bond formation.

[Sarah Rutzick 1L]

To add to this, if the shape of the molecule is linear, the number of hybrid orbitals is 2 (sp) since there are 2 regions of electron density. If a molecule is trigonal planar, the number of hybrid orbitals is 3 (sp^2) since there are 3 regions of electron density. It helps to draw the Lewis structure if you are unsure on the shape of the molecule, and then determine how many regions of electron density there are.