Sulfur forms a variety of fluorides, including SF2 and SF6, whereas oxygen forms only OF2 under comparable conditions.
Respond to the prompts below in terms of electronic structure and bonding considerations for the two central atoms involved.
(a) Write the ground-state electron configurations of isolated O and S atoms using noble-gas shorthand.
(b) Describe, in particulate terms, why an O atom in the molecule OF2 cannot accommodate more than eight electrons in its valence shell, whereas an S atom in SF6 can be surrounded by more than eight electrons.
(c) Explain how differences in available atomic orbitals for O and S account for the observed stoichiometries of their highest binary fluorides.