Week of 10/14/2013

This week in class was spent doing two things: working on a Molecular Geometry VSEPR group project and solidifying our knowledge of Lewis Dot Structures for the test on Tuesday.

In class we started the week by finishing our work with balloons and molecular geometry. White balloons represented unbonded electron pairs, and red balloons represented bonded atoms. The colors are different, but you can see how we did it here:

 

Atoms always space themselves as far apart from each other as possible in a molecule. However, unbonded electrons push atoms closer together (as seen above) reducing dihedral angles.

The project was simple enough, and helped me grasp VSEPR theory a little more. My Lewis Dot Structure knowledge was already pretty firm, so this lab came easy.

We then moved on to the gumdrop models. Same concept, but they don't account for unbonded electron pairs (I think?) and they DO account for dihedral bonding angles.

This picture isn't from our class, but I don't have a camera, so I rely on other's pictures.

We also went over hybridization, which ties into VSEPR theory as another factor to help us determine the shape of a molecule, using the orbitals of atoms and how they bond. We also have to deal with resonance, the various forms a molecule can take.

Here you can see Benzene, in it's two resonance structures.

This unit as a whole started out very confusing for me, and it still is, at least a little bit. However, I feel like I've caught up a little bit. My knowledge of Formal Charges is still shaky, but my test is tomorrow, so clearly I've got to get ready in time.