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Question 8.1: The element silicon lies below carbon in Group 14 of the per......

The element silicon lies below carbon in Group 14 of the periodic table and is also tetravalent (has four valence electrons). Predict the geometry of a silane molecule, SiH_4 . Silane is a gas that is used in the preparation of extremely pure silicon for semiconductors.

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The Lewis formula for a silane molecule is

\begin{matrix}\underset{|}{H} \\ H – Si – H \\ \overset{|}{H} \end{matrix}

There are four valence-shell electron pairs (four covalent bonds) about the central silicon atom, so we predict (correctly) that a silane molecule is tetrahedral and that the H–Si–H bond angles are 109.5°.

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