In the molecule ClF5, chlorine makes five covalent bonds. Therefore, five of its seven valence electrons need to be unpaired. The orbitals with the same energy are known as degenerate orbitals. For example, the p subshell has three degenerate orbital, namely, px, py, and pz. How many degenerate orbitals are needed to contain seven electrons with five of them unpaired

Each orbital holds 2 electrons so for 5 of 7 orbitals to have unpaired electrons, five orbitals will have one electron and one orbital will have two electrons making 7 total electrons and 6 total orbitals.

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pstnonsonjoku pstnonsonjoku · Answer 2 · 2021-12-03T15:09:06+01:00

Six degenerate orbitals are required of which three contain unpaired electrons and one orbital contains a lone pair of electrons on the central atom.

Degenerate orbitals are orbitals that have the same energy. In the formation of ClF5, we need six orbitals of which five of them will contain unpaired electrons and one will contain an electron pair.

Hence, the central chlorine atom in ClF5 is sp3d2 hybridized. Six degenerate orbitals are required of which three contain unpaired electrons and one orbital contains a lone pair of electrons on the central atom.

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