Antimony pentafluoride (SbF5) is non-polar as the dipole moments of individually polar Sb-F bonds get canceled equally in opposite directions in the symmetrical, trigonal bipyramidal molecular shape and geometry.
SbF5 consists of five Sb-F bonds.
Each Sb-F bond is strongly polar as it consists of an electronegativity difference of 1.93 units between a single-covalently bonded antimony (E.N = 2.05) and fluorine (E.N = 3.98) atom.
Fluorine is the most electronegative element of the Periodic Table.
It strongly attracts the Sb-F shared electron cloud largely towards itself.
Thus, the central Sb-atom gains a partial positive charge (δ+) while each terminal F-atom gains a partial negative (δ–) charge, respectively.
There are no lone pair of electrons present on the central Sb-atom in SbF5 thus, no lone pair-lone pair or lone pair-bond pair electronic repulsions exist in the molecule.
Hence, it occupies a symmetrical trigonal bipyramidal shape and geometry.
The dipole moments of strongly polar Sb-F bonds get canceled equally in opposite directions.
The charged electron cloud stays uniformly distributed, which leads to an overall non-polar SbF5 molecule (net µ = 0).
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