Читать книгу Foundations of Chemistry - Philippa B. Cranwell - Страница 107

The first thing to determine is the number of areas of electron density around the central silicon atom. Both silicon and hydrogen are non‐metals; therefore, the bonding is covalent. A dot‐and‐cross diagram can be used to describe the bonding. There are four bonds from the silicon atom to the hydrogen atoms, and no lone pairs; thus there are four areas of electron density, so the shape of silane is tetrahedral. The bonding and shape of the molecule are exactly analogous to methane, CH₄, as both carbon and silicon are in the same group of the periodic table.