Inorganic Chemistry> if the total nbr of orbitals in valence s...

if the total nbr of orbitals in valence shell is covalency of particular atom then why oxygen covalency is not 4?

habib , 7 Years ago

Grade 12th pass

2 Answers

Aman Kashyap

Last Activity: 7 Years ago

There are 4 e in 2p subshell and rest of the orbitals ( 1s and 2s ) are completely filled. p subshell has 3 orbitals, each orbital can contain 2 e , so 1 orbital is conpletely filled, and the rest 2 orbitals in 2o subshell will be filled each with 2 e. And energy gap between 2p and 3s is really high and there is no 2d orbital so it can has only 2 orbitals to form covalent bonds and thats why it has a valency of 2 and not 4.

Vikas TU

Last Activity: 7 Years ago

Covalency is add up to number of orbital's in valence shells of an iota and furthermore the quantity of bonds a particle can shape inside an atom. An Oxygen molecule has 6 valence electrons, with electronic design 1s2, 2s2, 2p4. It has 4 orbital's in its valence shell, so expected covalency is 4 yet oxygen imparts its two electrons to two electrons of another molecule to accomplish eight electron idle gas electron course of action and end up noticeably steady, therefor covalency of oxygen is 2.