Electron deficiency

Electron-deficient compounds are chemical compounds in which the atoms have fewer electrons in the valence shell, as for filling of the shell would be needed. For the elements of the main group (except hydrogen) means that these bonds do not satisfy the octet rule, so the atoms do not have eight electrons in the valence shell.

Chemical compounds with electron -deficient bonds are often referred to as electron -deficient compounds; However, this term is misleading, because it is also used for electrophilic molecules, ie Lewis acids.

Examples of electron -deficient bonds are many hydrides, such as AlH 3 with a total of only six valence electrons per formula unit. The bonds in these substances can also be regarded as a three -center two- electron bonds; So the bonding orbitals comprise three ( instead of two) atoms; in other words, three ( instead of two) atoms, the electrons couples sharing.

Electron -deficient bonds are very stable; the compounds thus formed, therefore reactive.

• Chemical Bonding