What is the shape of carbon tetrachloride...ccl4

carbon tetrachloride forms a tetrahedral shape ( a triangular pyramid basically), with the chloride atoms on the 'tips' of the pyramid and the carbon atom in the middle

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Regards,

Anuj Agarwal

IIT Delhi 2007

this is explained not only by mentioning the shape which in this case is tetrahedral. The reason for this is that C has 4 valence electrons while Cl has 7. Hence, C will need 4 valence electrons to fill its shell.

C-1s2,2s2,2p2. The degenrate shells are formed by hybridisation and we get four sp3 orbitals with one electron each. Each Cl gives one electron to fill its shell and hence we have four electron clouds and to minimize the repulsions these have to be directed as far as possible. And also, since there is no differnece between each of the four C-Cl bonds, the obtained geometric shape must be symmetric. The geometric figure satisfying this is a tetrahedron.