Xenon Tetrafluoride Hybridization

Xenon tetrafluoride (XeF4) has a sp3d2 hybridization, which means that the xenon atom in XeF4 uses five atomic orbitals to form hybrid orbitals.

In particular, the xenon atom's 5p and 5s atomic orbitals combine with three 5d atomic orbitals to form six sp3d2 hybrid orbitals. These hybrid orbitals are oriented in an octahedral arrangement around the central xenon atom, with four orbitals pointing towards the corners of a square base and two orbitals directed along the vertical axis perpendicular to the base.

Each of the four fluorine atoms in XeF4 bonds with one of the four hybrid orbitals pointing towards the corners of the square base, while the remaining two hybrid orbitals containing lone pairs of electrons occupy the positions along the vertical axis. This results in a distorted octahedral geometry for the molecule, with a bond angle of approximately 90 degrees between adjacent fluorine atoms and a slightly smaller bond angle between the axial fluorine atoms and the equatorial fluorine atoms.

Overall, the sp3d2 hybridization allows for the efficient sharing of electron density between the xenon and fluorine atoms in XeF4, leading to the molecule's stability and reactivity towards other chemical species.