Question

The hydrogen atom is not actually electronegative enough to form bonds to xenon. were the xenon-hydrogen bond to exist, what would be the structure of xeh4?

Answer 1

It is true that although Hydrogen atoms are not so electronegative to form bonds with Xenon, there sometimes do exist bonds between them.

In the formation of Xenon tetrahydride (XeH₄), each hydrogen atom will have one free electron i.e., there will be 4 free electrons from the 4-Hydrogens. Xenon has 8 valence electrons. So, there are a total of 12 valence electrons.

So, 4 electrons in the form os 2 lone pair of electrons will be present on the central Xenon atom. There will be 4 sigma bonding pairs and 2 non-bonding lone pairs of electrons that will be arranged in an octahedrally around the center Xe atom. The remaining lone pairs will be present across the molecule at an angle of 180° from each other. Therefore, the resulting molecular structure of XeH₄ will be square planar.

The attachment shows the Lewis structure of XeH₄ that has been downloaded from Google Images.