Bent's rule

Bent's rule, which concerns orbital hybridisation of chemical bonds, was stated in 1961 by the American chemist Henry Bent.^[1] Originally, it was expressed as follows:

• Atomic s character concentrates in orbitals directed toward electropositive subsituents

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In other words, more understandable in terms of p-character of hybridized bonds:

• A central atom tends to direct hybrids of higher p character toward more electronegative substituents

References