Octet Rule
Key Questions
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But of course...
and we see that in many molecules, like the trigonal bipyramidal
"PCl"_5 , the octahedral"SF"_6 , and the square pyramidal"ClF"_5 . There are many other examples among transition metal complexes that I won't mention.Here,
10 valence electrons surround phosphorus.Here,
12 valence electrons surround sulfur.Here,
12 valence electrons surround chlorine.This is possible because all three central atoms have access to orbitals on the third quantum level,
n = 3 . In all of these cases, the3d orbitals can be used, allowing extra space to store more than8 total valence electrons.