Do electron clouds overlap when hybridization occurs?
1 Answer
First of all, electron clouds CAN overlap, and they must, to form chemical bonds in the first place!
The attraction of nucleus
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And so, they must be able to overlap to form hybridized atomic orbitals in a linear combination.
Take the
Psi_(sp^3) = c_1psi_(s) + c_2psi_(p_x) + c_3psi_(p_y) + c_4psi_(p_z)Ψsp3=c1ψs+c2ψpx+c3ψpy+c4ψpz where each wave function
psiψ represents a given pure atomic orbital, with weighted contributions given byc_ici . As a result,Psi_(sp^3)Ψsp3 represents thesp^3sp3 -hybridized orbital.
All that the above equation says is that hybridized orbitals form by the overlap of pure atomic orbitals.
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They achieve an intermediate energy between the original orbitals, so that all the hybridized orbitals are:
- the same energy
- the same look/symmetry
So, in
This then allows the orbitals to align themselves along the internuclear axes, and bond by head-on overlap (meaning,