Octet Rule

Key Questions

  • 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.

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    Here, #12# valence electrons surround sulfur.

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    Here, #12# valence electrons surround chlorine.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/

    This is possible because all three central atoms have access to orbitals on the third quantum level, #n = 3#. In all of these cases, the #3d# orbitals can be used, allowing extra space to store more than #8# total valence electrons.

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