{"id":253102,"date":"2025-07-11T21:34:23","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T21:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=253102"},"modified":"2025-07-11T21:34:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T21:34:24","slug":"using-vsepr-the-so2-molecule-has-trigonal-planar-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/11\/using-vsepr-the-so2-molecule-has-trigonal-planar-shape\/","title":{"rendered":"Using VSEPR the SO2 molecule has trigonal planar shape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Using VSEPR the SO2 molecule has trigonal planar shape: What are the 3 groups surrounding the central atom? sulfur; 2 oxygens sulfur; oxygen and lone pair of electrons c.2 lone pairs of electrons d.2 oxygens Ione pair of electrons<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-1-color\">The Correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The correct answer is: <strong>sulfur; oxygen and lone pair of electrons<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s an explanation based on VSEPR theory:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the SO2 (sulfur dioxide) molecule, the central atom is sulfur, which is bonded to two oxygen atoms. The sulfur atom has a total of 6 valence electrons (since sulfur is in Group 16 of the periodic table), and each oxygen atom has 6 valence electrons as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Bonding Groups<\/strong>: The sulfur atom forms two double bonds with the two oxygen atoms. Each oxygen atom shares two electrons with sulfur, forming a double bond. This accounts for two bonding groups around sulfur.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lone Pair<\/strong>: In addition to the two bonding groups, sulfur also has one lone pair of electrons. This lone pair does not participate in bonding but occupies space around the sulfur atom.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>In total, there are three electron groups around the central sulfur atom: <strong>two bonding groups (from the oxygen atoms) and one lone pair of electrons<\/strong>. According to the VSEPR theory, these three electron groups arrange themselves as far apart as possible in a trigonal planar geometry. However, because one of the electron groups is a lone pair, the actual molecular shape of SO2 is <strong>bent<\/strong> (not linear or trigonal planar). This bent shape is a result of the repulsion between the lone pair and the bonding pairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thus, while the electron geometry is trigonal planar, the molecular shape (the arrangement of atoms) is bent due to the presence of the lone pair of electrons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/learnexams-banner6-340.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-253103\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Using VSEPR the SO2 molecule has trigonal planar shape: What are the 3 groups surrounding the central atom? sulfur; 2 oxygens sulfur; oxygen and lone pair of electrons c.2 lone pairs of electrons d.2 oxygens Ione pair of electrons The Correct Answer and Explanation is: The correct answer is: sulfur; oxygen and lone pair of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253102\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}