Tetrahedral Molecules - Creative Chemistry

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Skip to content Tetrahedral molecules

What is here?

You can see ball-and-stick models of methane, ammonia and water:

  • all three molecules have four pairs of outer electrons around their central atom, so
  • they all have a tetrahedral arrangement of electron pairs around the central atom.
Use your mouse (or finger on touch devices) to move or scale molecules. Double tap to stop and start each animation.

Options atom labels ball and stick model space-filling model perspective view

methane, CH4

ammonia, NH3

water, H2O

Shapes and bond angles

There are four pairs of outer electrons around the central atom in each of these molecules. These pairs of electrons repel each other. In terms of the relative strength of repulsion:

strongest lone pair – lone pair
⇣ lone pair – bond pair
weakest bond pair – bond pair

The H—C—H bond angle in methane is the tetrahedral angle, 109.5°. This angle is obtained when all four pairs of outer electrons repel each other equally. The bond angles in ammonia and in water are less than 109.5° because of the stronger repulsion by their lone pairs of electrons.

MoleculeBonding pairsLone pairsBond angleShape
CH440109.5°tetrahedral
NH331107.0°trigonal pyramidal
H2O22104.5°bent line

Different sources may quote different bond angles for ammonia and water. The ones shown here are acceptable for AS and A Level examinations.

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