Do electron clouds overlap when hybridization occurs?

1 Answer
Aug 7, 2017

First of all, electron clouds CAN overlap, and they must, to form chemical bonds in the first place!

The attraction of nucleus #A# to the electrons in atom #B# balance out with the repulsion of the two negatively-charged electron clouds and of the two positively-charged nuclei when bonds form at the potential energy minimum.

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/

And so, they must be able to overlap to form hybridized atomic orbitals in a linear combination.

Take the #sp^3# for example:

#Psi_(sp^3) = c_1psi_(s) + c_2psi_(p_x) + c_3psi_(p_y) + c_4psi_(p_z)#

where each wave function #psi# represents a given pure atomic orbital, with weighted contributions given by #c_i#. As a result, #Psi_(sp^3)# represents the #sp^3#-hybridized orbital.

All that the above equation says is that hybridized orbitals form by the overlap of pure atomic orbitals.

http://www.mhhe.com/

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 #"CH"_4#, carbon would hybridize its #2s# and #2p_(x//y//z)# as follows:

This then allows the orbitals to align themselves along the internuclear axes, and bond by head-on overlap (meaning, #sigma# overlap) with outer atoms.

You can see more info on this here.