Bonding: Charge Clouds

Question 1

What are charge clouds?

Answer 1

• Bonding pairs and lone pairs exist as charge clouds
• A charge cloud is an area where you have a big chance of finding an electron - the electrons whizz around inside a charge cloud

Question 2

Repulsion of Charge Clouds

Answer 2

• Charge clouds will experience mutual repulsion with other pairs of electrons
• Pairs of electrons in the outer shell of atoms arrange themselves as far apart as possible to minimise repulsion

Question 3

Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion Theory

Answer 3

• The shape of a charge cloud affects how much it repels other charge clouds
• Charge clouds that repels the most to repels the least
• Lone pair - lone pair
• Lone pair - bonding pair
• Bonding pair - bonding pair
• Lone-pair charge clouds repel more than bonding-pair charge clouds, so bond angles are reduced because bonding-pairs are pushed together by lone-pair repulsion
• The scale above also shows the biggest bond angles to the smallest bond angles