Talk:Lone pair

message: What's the difference between the two terms? --pie4all88 08:08, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Valence electrons are the electrons that can participate in a reaction on an atom, in general those in the outer sphere.  So a nitrogen atom has 5 valence electrons, when you construct ammonia from that atom, then three of those valence atoms are paired with three valence electrons on the hydrogen atoms (one on each hydrogen atom) giving a covalent bond. The other two valence electrons on the nitrogen are not reacted, these form a lone pair.  If you now would combine a molecule of borane (BH3) or a H+ to this ammonia, that electron pair (that lone pair) is donated to the borane respectively hydrogen cation, forming a dative covalent bond.  Hence, lone pairs are valence electrons, but valence electrons are only lone pairs, if they reside on an atom (and form a pair), but not used in a bond.  I hope this clarifies.  --Dirk Beetstra T C 08:50, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah yes, thank you very much, Beetstra.  I'll try to update the article accordingly.  Thanks!  --pie4all88 09:11, 24 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lone pairs vs. valence electrons 

message: * please consider merging Unshared pair (electrons) into lone pair. Identical concepts different wording thanks V8rik 22:07, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge proposal 

message: *please consider merging electron pair into lone pair. Identical concepts different wording thanks Solejheyen (talk) 11:49, 10 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Merge proposal

message: There are serious inaccuracies on this page.  For one thing, the VSEPR picture of lone pairs is completely wrong.  Water does not have rabbit ears!  Eugene Kwan (talk) 14:34, 17 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Accuracy of Article

message: I've been looking through info on non-bonding orbitals (n orbitals).  According to traditional Valence bond theory and VSEPR theory, hydrogen fluoride (HF) should have 3 equivalent electron lone pairs on the F atom, water (H2O) should have 2 equivalent lone pairs on the O atom (I assume those are the rabbit ears User:E kwan refers to), and formaldehyde (H2CO) should have 2 lone pairs on the O atom, which should essentially occupy n orbitals in Molecular orbital diagrams.  Instead, I found MO diagrams which showed HF has only 2 pairs of n electrons, formaldehyde has only 1 pair of n electrons, and water has an unusual mixture of MO orbitals in which there are not 2 equivalent pairs of n electrons.  Maybe sometime when I have more time, I will write something more about this.  H Padleckas (talk) 11:06, 12 January 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  A few examples in MO diagram theory 

message: I gather from reading other Wikipedia entries - Lewis acids and bases, for example - that the concept of the lone pair is pretty important in chemistry, at least in some formulations. But I wouldn't get that at all from the intro to this piece, which tells me exactly what they are (in very abstract terms) but gives me no clue what that means in terms of its implications for chemistry and so on. Anyone up for expanding on this? --Oolong (talk) 12:39, 2 November 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  ...but WHY? (Introduction)