Elaborating the Link Between VSEPR and Orbital Hybridization

Many undergraduate chemistry textbooks discuss both the VSEPR (valence-shell electron-pair repulsion) and hybridization (the mixing of atomic orbitals to form new directional orbitals) models of molecular structure as separate topics and fail to mention Bent’s rule (the more electronegative ligand uses the hybrid bonding orbital with the greatest p-character). In this paper, important, but neglected, correlations among these three topics are explored. In addition, it is shown how a consideration of these correlations makes each of the topics more understandable to students.