Trigonal bipyramidal molecular geometry
In chemistry, a trigonal bipyramid formation is a molecular geometry with one atom at the center and 5 more atoms at the corners of a triangular bipyramid. This is one geometry for which the bond angles surrounding the central atom are not identical (see also pentagonal bipyramid), because there is no geometrical arrangement with five terminal atoms in equivalent positions. Examples of this molecular geometry are phosphorus pentafluoride (), and phosphorus pentachloride () in the gas phase. Axial (or apical) and equatorial positions The five atoms bonded to the central atom are not all equivalent, and two different types of position are defined. For phosphorus pentachloride as an example, the phosphorus atom shares a plane with three chlorine atoms at 120° angles to each other in equatorial positions, and two more chlorine atoms above and below the plane (axial or apical positions). According to the VSEPR theory of molecular geometry, an axial position is more crowded because an axial atom has three neighboring equatorial atoms (on the same central atom) at a 90° bond angle, whereas an equatorial atom has only two neighboring axial atoms at a 90° bond angle. For molecules with five identical ligands, the axial bond lengths