Does methane have a sigma bond?

1 Answer
Apr 1, 2015

Yes it does, four sigma bonds actually.

Methane, or #CH_4#, has the following Lewis structure:

http://cnx.org/contents/c6ade988-6260-4e0e-ad21-fa5ef050cf35@1.2:8/Concept_Development_Studies_in

The carbon atom is bonded to four hydrogen atoms through four single bonds; each single bond is also a sigma bond, which means that methane has a total of 4 sigma bonds.

http://www.ntu.ac.uk/cels/molecular_geometry/hybridization/Sp3_hybridization/Methane/

Each of carbon's four #sp^(3)# hybrid orbitals bonds with a 1s-orbital from a hydrogen to a sigma bond.