(c) Is XeF2 linear

Question

(c) Is XeF2 linear

Accepted Answer

Hi everyone. So for this problem, we are trying to find the molecule that is nonlinear. So all of them are going to be linear except for that one molecule to find their geometries. We need to write out there Lewis structures and I'm just going to run through this super quickly. If you need help with LewiS structures, please check out our other videos and they'll get you to where you need to be. So first up we have K R F two and it's going to look something like this, you need to add in our electrons and this is what it's going to look like. So this molecule, well, it doesn't look like it is actually going to be linear. So the two lone pairs up here, combined with the lone pair on the bottom, is going to hold krypton in place and it is going to keep this a linear molecule. So we can go ahead and cross out A because that's not what we're looking for here. For C. 02, we're going to have carbon surrounded by the two oxygen's and we're going to have some lone pairs. And that's going to be our Lewis structure and we don't have any lone pairs on carbon and the two oxygen's are actually symmetrical. This is a linear molecule. So that's going to be a linear so we can go ahead and cross out B. As well. Now for C we have N 20. This is going to be kind of a weird looking Lewis structure. So instead of putting O in the middle, like we usually would we would usually put the singular item in the middle. We're going to put N in the middle surrounded by oh and another N in the sense going to have some electrons and this is going to get electrons and this is what we get. And this one doesn't look linear either, but it actually is. We don't have any lone pairs on the end in the middle. And this is going to be a linear molecule. So we can go ahead and cross out. See for D. We have B EF two, we're going to have the Fs on the outside and be in the middle. So it's going to look something like that. Mhm. And then we add in our electrons and this is another one. This is pretty symmetrical. We have the florentines look the same and there are no atoms on the I'm sorry, there are no electrons on the central atom. So this one is also going to be linear. So we can cross that out. And finally we have E. S S E. 02 and we're going to have oxygen surrounding selenium and this is going to be double bonded and we need to add in are electrons. Now this one might look linear but take note of the lone pair we have over S. E. Here. This means that this is going to be a bent molecule. So this molecule is non linear, which is what we're looking for. So E is going to be the correct answer here. I hope this video helped you out, and I'll see you in the next one.

(c) Is XeF2 linear

Verified Solution

Key Concepts

Molecular Geometry

VSEPR Theory

Hybridization