hybrid orbital

Hybridization in chemistry is a concept used to explain the bonding of atoms, particularly in organic compounds. It involves the mixing of atomic orbitals on a single atom to create new, equivalent hybrid orbitals. For example, a carbon atom's 2s and three 2p orbitals can hybridize to form four sp³ hybrid orbitals, which are oriented towards the corners of a tetrahedron. These hybrid orbitals are then used to form sigma bonds. Another type of hybridization is sp² hybridization, where one 2s and two 2p orbitals mix to form three sp² hybrid orbitals arranged in a plane, leaving one unhybridized 2p orbital available for pi bonding. This process helps explain the observed molecular geometries and bond properties that simpler atomic orbital descriptions cannot account for.1