CHM120H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Linus Pauling, Electronegativity, Caesium
Document Summary
When you draw structures it should be very clear. That means when you draw a trigonal bipyramid it should exactly look like a trigonal bipyramid. Recall that electronegativity is the measure of an atom"s attraction for electrons. The higher the electronegativity, the greater the attraction. We can extend this idea further and conclude that atoms with higher electronegativity will be less inclined to share their electrons with a proton. Thus, increasing electronegativity of the atom that shares an electron pair will decrease basicity. Weaker bases have stronger conjugate acids, so we conclude that as electronegativity of an atom increases the acidity of the attached proton also increases. Electronegativity values can be found in the text. Linus pauling devised the electronegativity scale that enjoys almost universal use today. On the pauling scale, fluorine has the highest electronegativity (4. 0) and cesium has the lowest (0. 7).
