Question

6. Determine the hybridization and explain your answer for the P atom in PH3.

Answer 1

PH3 ,

P has outer shell configuration of 3s2 3p3 , hence 5 valence electrons, H has 1 e- ,

so PH3 has total 8 valence elctrons out of which 6 are used for 3 P-H bond ( each bond is 2e-) , reamining 2e- reamin as lone pair on P

steric number = number of sigma bonds around P + number of lone pairs

                        =    3 + 1 = 4

steric number 4 corresponds to sp3 hybridisation of P