Shapes of Molecules

Ionic bonds are electrostatic attractions between oppositely charges ions

and this attraction radiates uniformly in all directions. Therefore ionic
bonds do not have a specified direction.
Covalent bonds are formed between the overlap of atomic orbitals and
therefore have a specified direction, which is why we draw them as lines
between two atoms.
Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion Theory (VSEPR Theory)
Electrons involved in bonding are called VALENCE ELECTRONS. Until now
you have mainly thought of bonding electrons for the 1 st 20 elements,
where we were only dealing with 2 or 8 electrons in an outer shell.
Also we were only considering that covalent bonding only happened
between non-metals. So, dont worry if you see in this section metals
forming covalent bonds with non-metals e.g. BeCl 2 which is covalent.
Electrons are negative therefore if we consider a molecule like methane.
We have four bonding pairs each pair will be trying to repel each other,
which forces the bonds to spread out as much as possible. How would you
draw this as a dot-cross diagram?

Lone Pairs
Sometimes however we get groups of electrons that are not involved in
bonding. We call these LONE PAIRS. Examples of molecules with lone
pairs are ammonia and water. Drawn in standard dot-cross models how
would they look?

When we consider shapes of molecules and lone pairs in potential

tetrahedral molecules e.g. with four groups of electrons, lone pairs take
up more space.
Each lone pair reduces the bond angles between bonding pairs by
2.5o.
Therefore the actual shape of ammonia and water are as follows:

Linear Molecules
When you get two groups of bonding electrons around a central atom
they can spread further. How far can they spread?

Planar Molecules
In molecules where you get three groups of electrons around a central
atom the shape they form is called trigonal planar (or planar triangular).
What will be the bond angle be here?

Trigonal Bipyramidal Five Groups

Octahedral Six Groups

Some Simple Guidelines to Work Out Shapes of Molecules

1) Draw a simple dot/cross diagram.
2) Count the number of bonding pairs (dative or normal).
3) Count the number of lone pairs
Table shows which shape will be formed
Number of
bonding pairs
2
3
4
4

Number of lone
pairs
0
0
0
1

4
5

2
0

Shape

Example

Linear
Trigonal Planar
Tetrahedral
Trigonal
Pyramidal
Bent Linear
Trigonal
Bipyramidal
Octahedral

BeCl2
BF3
CH4
NH3
H2O
PCl5
SF6