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The shape of XeF5 will be:
A) square pyramidal
B) Trigonal bipyramidal
C) Planar
D) Pentagonal bipyramidal

Answer
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Hint: The valence shell electron pair repulsion (VSEPR) theory is widely used to determine the shape or geometry of a molecule. In XeF5 , the 5 bond pairs and two lone pairs are arranged to give the basic shape of a bipyramidal pentagonal. However, the exact shape can be determined by considering the electrostatic repulsion between lone pairs and bond pairs.


Complete step by step answer:
The xenon is a group of 18 elements. The electronic configuration of xenon is as follows:
Xe = [Kr] 4d10 5s2 5p6
The valence shell of xenon contains 2 electrons in the  5s and 6 electrons in the  5p orbital. Therefore there is a total of 8 valence electron in  Xe.In XeF5, the five fluorine atoms donate one electron to the xenon. The XeF5 have a negative charge on it thus adding one extra electron to the electron count. Therefore total electron count associated with the XeF5 is,
Total electron in XeF5=Valence electron of Xe + 5 × 1e- from F + Electron from negative charge = 8 + 5 + 1Total electron in XeF5=14
Since each electron pair contains the two electrons thus divide the total number of electrons by the 2 to get the total number of electron pairs.
 Total number of electron pair = 14 e-2 = 7 pairs
Here, the XeF5 contains the 7 electron pair therefore the possible shape must contain the 7 atoms or lone pair surrounding the central xenon atom. The structure can contain the 5 groups in the axial plane surrounding the xenon atom and two groups can be at the equatorial position. Therefore the possible angle in between the 5 groups in the axial plane is,
36005= 720
Thus, the 5 groups are arranged in pentagonal and two bond pairs are at the equatorial position making an angle of 900 with the planar pentagonal shape. Therefore, the possible geometry XeF5 is pentagonal bipyramidal.
We have determined the basic shape of the molecule but the adjustments are made based on electrostatic repulsion between the bonding and lone pairs. The repulsion order is
 lone pairlone pair lone pairbonding pair bonding pairbonding pair
The lone pairs on average are closer to the nucleus compared to the bonding pair and therefore the lone pairs repel more strongly than the bonding pair.
For XeF5 , the parent shape is bipyramidal pentagonal and the structure has two lone pairs. We know that the lone pair lone pair repels each other and destabilizes the molecule. However, the lone pairs can be arranged in such a way that they can experience the minimum repulsion. The lone pairs are arranged opposite to each other making an angle of 1800 to minimize the lone pair-lone pair repulsion.
Therefore, the XeF5 is a planar structure. The structure of XeF5 as shown below,
seo images



Hence, (D) is the correct option.

Note: we can directly use a formula to find the number of electron pairs surrounding the central atom.
 Number of electron pair =12[V+N-C+A]
Where,
V is the number of valence electrons present in the central atom
N is the number of monovalent atoms bonded to the central atom
C is a charge of the cation
A is a charge of the anion
For XeF5,
Number of electron pair =12[V+N-C+A] =12[8+5-0+1] =12[14]Number of electron pair = 7


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