Question

Cyclopropane has an H-C-H angle of 118º. What does this data point indicate to you about the hybridization state of each carbon on cyclopropane?

Answer 1

Lets consider some example with bond angle and hybridization

H2O (sp3 hybridized , bond angle 109)  , BF3 (sp2 hybridized , bond angle 120) and CO2 (sp hybridized , bond angle 180)

so as we can see as the bond angle increases , hybridization changes from sp3 to sp2 to sp i.e more s - character will develop

now take the case of cyclopropane , though each carbon is sp3 hybridized so ideal bond angle has to be 109 but since ring is

bent to form triangle it got the angle 60⁰ the interior bond angle . during compression H-C-H called as exocyclic bond increases and this increases to 118⁰ as supported by data and as we have just seen as bond angle increases , s-character increases due to which hybridization almost become sp2

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