Skip to main content
Ch.11 - Chemical Bonding II: Molecular Shapes, VSEPR & MO Theory

Chapter 11, Problem 48

CH3F is a polar molecule, even though the tetrahedral geometry often leads to nonpolar molecules. Explain.

Verified Solution
Video duration:
0m:0s
This video solution was recommended by our tutors as helpful for the problem above.
4481
views
Was this helpful?

Video transcript

Hello everyone. Today, we have the point problem. Methyl fluoride is a polar molecule. Even though the tetrahedral geometry often leads to nonpolar molecules explain. So let's draw out the lower structure. So we have this carbon in the middle that is bound to our three hydrogens. And then we have a fluorine and the flooring will get three additional bomb pairs drawn so that we can complete the architect. Now the molecular geometry is tetrahedral. So the molecule shape is not the cause of its polarity. We have to look at the electron activities of the individual atoms. So fluor is the most electron atom. And as such gets an electronegativity of 4.0 hydrogen electron negativity is around 2.1 in carbons a little higher at 2.5. So we see that the bond diles here are not uniform since most of the electron if we were to draw an electronic cloud is surrounding this fluorine molecule. So that means that the sum of the Bondi poles is not zero, meaning that the molecule is polar. So we can conclude that our answer is see so is a polar molecule even though the tetrahedron geometry leads to no po and molecules because the bond dipoles are different. And so with that, we have solved the problem overall, I hope it's helped. And until next time.