Question

What will be the bond angle h-o-h in alcohol in sp3?

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:The oxygen atom in ether and alcohol is sp3

hybridised, therefore has a tetrahedral geometry where two positions are occupied by lone pairs of electrons and the other two by the alkyl groups in ether and one alkyl and one H in alcohol. The bond angle in regular tetrahedral is 109∘28' .

In general, the lone pairs on O tend to repel the bond pairs and results in lower bond angles than 109∘

in case of alcohols

But in ethers, the C−O−C bond angle is slightly more than this i.e nearly 110∘

. This is because of the presence of two bulky alkyl group on O atom. They repel each other and counterbalance the repulsion due to lone pairs on O atom on bond pairs. This results in the bond angle slightly greater than the tetrahedral angle.

The $$C−O−H$$ bond angle in alcohols is slightly less than the tetrahedral angle whereas the $$C−O−C$$ bond angle in ether is slightly greater because of repulsion between the two bulky R groups.