Question

Which orbital hybridization is associated with a tetrahedral charge cloud arrangement ? A) `sp` B) `sp^3d^2` C) `sp^3` D) `sp^2`

Answer 1

The answer is C) `sp^3`.

Charge clouds, or reagions of electron density, can be bonds (single, double and triple bonds count as 1 region of electron density) or lone pairs.

A tetrahedral charge cloud arrangement thus corresponds to 4 regions of electron density that surround the central atom - this is known as the steric number.

The steric number it also used to determine orbital hybridization, i.e. it gives you the number of hybrid orbitals a central atom must have.

In this case, a steric number equal to 4 corresponds to 4 hybrid orbitals `->` one s-orbital and three p-orbitals `->` `sp^(3)` hybrid orbitals.

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