Could the strain in the P₄ molecule be reduced by using sp³ hybrid orbitals in bonding instead of pure p orbitals? Explain.

Video transcript

Hello, everyone. Today, we have the following problem. Yellow arsenic has an analogous structure to tetra phosphorus which produces a significant bond strain with the strain be reduced. If arsenic use hybridized orbitals instead of pure p orbits for bonding, explain your answer. So this tetraarsenic or this yellow arsenic has is an allotrope of arsenic and its structure is very similar to that of tetra phosphorus. So it is essentially as its name suggests, four arsenic atoms bonded together. And so in this structure, arsenic, they use P, it uses P pure p orbitals to form this tetrahedron structure. And so that means that all of these bond angles r 60 degrees. And so the ring and bond string that's caused by these unusual angles coupled with the relatively poor P orbital overlap as exhibited, it makes the bonds weaker, essentially making it making this compound very unstable and highly reactive. So the general hybridized orbitals are SP three which gives us a tetrahedral with configuration with bond angles equaling 109.5 degrees. We see here that this S3 3 cannot form this 60 degree bond angle. So a is incorrect, we have sp two orbitals which form a trigonal planar configuration. And each of those bond angles are 120 degrees, this cannot form the 60 degrees necessary. So we can get rid of answer choice B and the answer choices C and D with C saying, using hy orbitals will not reduce the bond strain because the required bond angle can't be formed. And D says using the orbitals will not reduce the strain because they result in the same structural configuration. And so the answer will actually be c so since we cannot form the bond string, and we can even try with SP which gives us a linear configuration. And that is a 180 degrees that can also not form the 60 degrees necessary. And so with that, we can conclude that we just cannot form the bond angle required overall, I hope this helped. And until next time.