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Water hybridization structure
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The central oxygen atom in a water molecule (H₂O) has a sp³ hybridization. This means that the oxygen's 2s and 2p orbitals combine to form four equivalent sp³ hybrid orbitals, each containing one electron. Two of these sp³ hybrid orbitals form sigma bonds with the hydrogen atoms, and the other two sp³ hybrid orbitals contain the two lone pairs of electrons on the oxygen atom. This arrangement gives the water molecule a bent molecular geometry with an H-O-H bond angle of approximately 104.5°.
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