EG=Tetrahedral, MG=Trigonal Pyramidal
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The electron geometry of NCl3 is trigonal pyramidal (four electron groups around the central nitrogen atom). The molecular geometry of NCl3 is also trigonal pyramidal, as the three chlorine atoms and lone pair of electrons repel each other to form this shape.
Electron geometry describes the arrangement of electron pairs around a central atom in a molecule, based on the total number of electron pairs (bonding and nonbonding). Molecular geometry, on the other hand, describes the arrangement of atoms, taking into account only the positions of the atoms. They will not be the same when there are lone pairs of electrons on the central atom. In such cases, the electron geometry is determined by all electron pairs, whereas the molecular geometry considers only the positions of the atoms, leading to a difference.
The electron domain geometry of BrF3 is T-shaped. It consists of two bonding domains and three lone pairs of electrons around the central bromine atom, resulting in a T-shaped molecular geometry.
In predicting molecular geometries, unshared electron pairs and double bonds influence the overall shape of a molecule. Unshared electron pairs tend to repel bonding pairs, causing distortions in the molecular geometry. Double bonds restrict rotation around the bond axis, affecting the spatial arrangement of the surrounding atoms and leading to a fixed geometry for the molecule.
H3O: Trigonal pyramidal CO3^2-: Trigonal planar SF6: Octahedral
The molecular geometry of SnCl4 is tetrahedral. This is because tin (Sn) has 4 bonding pairs of electrons and 0 lone pairs, leading to a symmetrical tetrahedral arrangement of the chlorine atoms around the tin atom.