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Apologies if this is a dumb question. In my chemistry class we are discussing hybridization, and an example that came up for $sp_3$ hybridization was the compound $\ce{XeO3}$.

However, this seems counterintuitive. While the lewis structure of the compound is

enter image description here

and by inspection we see that there are 4 groups of electrons, the three double bonds and the lone pair which implies $sp_3$, from my understanding, the ability of xenon to form compounds relies solely on the fact that Xenon can use its $d$ orbitals to bond.

Why are the $s$ and $p$ orbitals implicated in the bonding and not the $d$ orbitals?

Mithoron
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Max0815
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  • https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/67352/about-dative-covalent-bonding-and-expanded-octet-rule – Mithoron Nov 14 '22 at 15:01
  • @Mithoron From the first link you shared, can I basically interpret this as $\text{Xe}$ bonding with $\text{O}$ in a way where xenon sends an electron to oxygen but not vice versa, so the bonding only inolves the s and p orbitals? – Max0815 Nov 14 '22 at 15:09
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    Yes, the bonds can be considered dative. Also there's hardly any involvement of d orbitals in hybrids in every compound you'd think of as "hypervalent". – Mithoron Nov 14 '22 at 16:08
  • https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/167501/bonding-in-hypervalent-molecules – Mithoron Nov 14 '22 at 16:13
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    BTW titles shouldn't have mathjax because of searchability issues. – Mithoron Nov 14 '22 at 20:18

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