What orbital hybridisation?
Orbital hybridisation is a model used to explain covalent bonding in molecules. It involves the merging of orbitals that are on the same energy level to form new hybrid orbitals.
Orbital hybridisation most commonly occurs with the merging of the s and p orbitals. Though in the same energy level the s orbitals have a lower energy than the p orbitals, the hybrid orbitals have an energy between the s and p orbitals. An atom can be sp, sp2 or sp3 hybridised depending if the s orbital was merged with one, two or three orbitals respectively. Thus the exponent on the p refers to the number of p orbitals that merged with the s orbital. These new hybrid orbitals can bond with other orbitals just like any other orbitals.
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Related Chemistry IB answers
All answers ▸Draw a Lewis structure of phosphine, and state the hybridisation of the phosphorus atom.
Which intermolecular forces do I need to know about and how do they differ in strength?
Which are four factors affecting the rate of a chemical reaction and how do these affect the rate constant of the reaction?
Use the following information: [[[[2H2(g) + O2(g) → 2H2O(l) ∆H = −572 kJ mol−1]]]] [[[[2H2(g) + O2(g) → 2H2O(g) ∆H = −484 kJ mol−1]]]] to calculate the enthalpy change for the process: H2O(g) → H2O(l)