Determine if the compound of BCl 2 F is polar or nonpolar.

Determine if the compound of BCl2f is polar or nonpolar. Alright. So boron's in group 3 a. Chlorine is in group 7 a, and there's 2 of them, and Fluorine is also in group 7 a. So that's gonna give me 24 total valence electrons. So now, I'm gonna place the least electronegative one in the center which is boron. It's gonna form single bonds to these elements. We place enough electrons around them, so they're following the octet rule. Doing this means that we use all 24 of our valence electrons. So there is no more electrons that we can place anywhere. If If we take a look here, although the central element has no lone pairs, all the surrounding elements are not the same. We have chlorines and fluorine as surrounding elements. Remember, to be a perfect shape, the central element have needs to have 0 lone pairs and all the surrounding elements must be the same. Because of that, this is not a perfect shape and therefore the molecule itself or compound itself is polar.

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4. Molecular Compounds

Molecular Polarity (Simplified)

GOB Chemistry

4. Molecular Compounds

Molecular Polarity (Simplified)

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Multiple Choice

Determine if the compound of BCl₂F is polar or nonpolar.

polar

nonpolar

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Verified step by step guidance

Identify the central atom in the compound BCl2F. In this case, it is Boron (B).

Determine the molecular geometry of the compound. BCl2F has three substituents (two Cl atoms and one F atom) around the central Boron atom, which suggests a trigonal planar geometry.

Consider the electronegativity of the atoms involved. Fluorine (F) is more electronegative than Chlorine (Cl), which means the B-F bond will have a greater dipole moment than the B-Cl bonds.

Assess the symmetry of the molecule. In a trigonal planar geometry, if all substituents were the same, the molecule would be nonpolar. However, since F is more electronegative than Cl, the dipoles do not cancel out completely.

Conclude that due to the difference in electronegativity and the resulting dipole moments, the molecule BCl2F is polar.