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I've been scratching my head on this one for awhile here. In a carbonyl sulfide (COS) molecule, what is the hybridization state of oxygen?

Carbonyl sulfide is composed of a single carbon atom double bonded to oxygen and sulfur atoms. The sulfur and oxygen atoms each harbor two lone pairs.

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Looking at oxygen, I count electron-dense groups:

  • There is one bonded atom
  • There are two lone pairs

This should amount to an sp2 hybridized orbitals for oxygen, before exceptions are accounted for.

Checking if any lone pairs are delocalized:

  • Oxygen both participates in a pi-bond and is adjacent to a carbon that participates in a pi-bond

This is where I'm stuck. Are any of oxygen's lone electron pairs delocalized due to these facts? Is the hybridized orbital not sp2 for oxygen?

gladshire
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  • In between, though generally considered as sp2. – Solid - NMR Aug 31 '20 at 02:16
  • @AdityaRoychowdhury Maybe, but they shouldn't https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/80962/what-is-the-hybridization-of-terminal-fluorine-atoms-in-molecules-like-boron-tri – Mithoron Sep 01 '20 at 22:40

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