SECTION B – CHEMICAL BONDS AND MOLECULAR SHAPE B3 Shapes of some small molecules

Water In water the oxygen atom is sp3 hybridized. In this case two of the four atomic orbitals are doubly occupied and all four point to the corners of a tetrahedron. The valence of oxygen is satisfied by the bonding of two hydrogen atoms. The repulsive effects of two lone pairs mean that the H-O-H bond angle is 104.5∞.