Editing Hypervalent molecule (section)

=== Molecular orbital theory ===
A complete description of hypervalent molecules arises from consideration of molecular orbital theory through quantum mechanical methods. An [[LCAO]] in, for example, sulfur hexafluoride, taking a basis set of the one sulfur 3s-orbital, the three sulfur 3p-orbitals, and six octahedral geometry symmetry-adapted linear combinations (SALCs) of fluorine orbitals, a total of ten molecular orbitals are obtained (four fully occupied bonding MOs of the lowest energy, two fully occupied intermediate energy non-bonding MOs and four vacant antibonding MOs with the highest energy) providing room for all 12 valence electrons.  This is a stable configuration only for S''X''<sub>6</sub> molecules containing electronegative ligand atoms like fluorine, which explains why SH<sub>6</sub> is not a stable molecule. In the bonding model, the two non-bonding MOs (1e<sub>g</sub>) are localized equally on all six fluorine atoms.