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Lone pairs (shown as pairs of dots) in the Lewis structure of hydroxide. In science, a lone pair refers to a pair of valence electrons that are not shared with another atom in a covalent bond [1] and is sometimes called an unshared pair or non-bonding pair. Lone pairs are found in the outermost electron shell of atoms.
The bonding electron pair shared in a sigma bond with an adjacent atom lies further from the central atom than a nonbonding (lone) pair of that atom, which is held close to its positively charged nucleus. VSEPR theory therefore views repulsion by the lone pair to be greater than the repulsion by a bonding pair.
This is true because the lone pair occupies more space near the central atom (A) than does a bonding pair of electrons. An equatorial lone pair is repelled by only two bonding pairs at 90°, whereas a hypothetical axial lone pair would be repelled by three bonding pairs at 90° which would make the molecule unstable. Repulsion by bonding pairs ...
They can form a chemical bond between two atoms, or they can occur as a lone pair of valence electrons. They also fill the core levels of an atom. Because the spins are paired, the magnetic moment of the electrons cancel one another, and the pair's contribution to magnetic properties is generally diamagnetic .
This increased p character in those orbitals decreases the bond angle between them to less than the tetrahedral 109.5°. The same logic can be applied to ammonia (107.0° HNH bond angle, with three N(~sp 3.4 or 23% s) bonding orbitals and one N(~sp 2.1 or 32% s) lone pair), the other canonical example of this phenomenon.
The linear molecular geometry describes the geometry around a central atom bonded to two other atoms (or ligands) placed at a bond angle of 180°. Linear organic molecules , such as acetylene ( HC≡CH ), are often described by invoking sp orbital hybridization for their carbon centers.
In LCP theory a lone pair is treated as a ligand. Gillespie terms the lone pair a lone pair domain and states that these lone pair domains push the ligands together until they reach the interligand distance predicted by the relevant inter-ligand radii. [1]
As such, the predicted shape and bond angle of sp 3 hybridization is tetrahedral and 109.5°. This is in open agreement with the true bond angle of 104.45°. The difference between the predicted bond angle and the measured bond angle is traditionally explained by the electron repulsion of the two lone pairs occupying two sp 3 hybridized orbitals.