How are the following similar, and how do they differ?
(a) σ molecular orbitals and π molecular orbitals
(b) ψ for an atomic orbital and ψ for a molecular orbital
(c) bonding orbitals and antibonding orbitals
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Chemistry 2e · 8.4 Molecular Orbital Theory
Molecular Orbital Theory: practice problems
9 problems from the book, with its answers. Check your working, or have any of them explained to you on the whiteboard.
Exercises 35
Exercises 37
Exercises 39
Exercises 41
Exercises 43
Exercises 45
Exercises 47
Exercises 49
Key terms · 16
- antibonding orbital
- molecular orbital located outside of the region between two nuclei; electrons in an antibonding orbital destabilize the molecule
- bond order
- number of pairs of electrons between two atoms; it can be found by the number of bonds in a Lewis structure or by the difference between the number of bonding and antibonding electrons divided by two
- bonding orbital
- molecular orbital located between two nuclei; electrons in a bonding orbital stabilize a molecule
- degenerate orbitals
- orbitals that have the same energy
- diamagnetism
- phenomenon in which a material is not magnetic itself but is repelled by a magnetic field; it occurs when there are only paired electrons present
- homonuclear diatomic molecule
- molecule consisting of two identical atoms
- linear combination of atomic orbitals
- technique for combining atomic orbitals to create molecular orbitals
- molecular orbital
- region of space in which an electron has a high probability of being found in a molecule
- molecular orbital diagram
- visual representation of the relative energy levels of molecular orbitals
- molecular orbital theory
- model that describes the behavior of electrons delocalized throughout a molecule in terms of the combination of atomic wave functions
- paramagnetism
- phenomenon in which a material is not magnetic itself but is attracted to a magnetic field; it occurs when there are unpaired electrons present
- π bonding orbital
- molecular orbital formed by side-by-side overlap of atomic orbitals, in which the electron density is found on opposite sides of the internuclear axis
- π* bonding orbital
- antibonding molecular orbital formed by out of phase side-by-side overlap of atomic orbitals, in which the electron density is found on both sides of the internuclear axis, and there is a node between the nuclei
- σ bonding orbital
- molecular orbital in which the electron density is found along the axis of the bond
- σ* bonding orbital
- antibonding molecular orbital formed by out-of-phase overlap of atomic orbital along the axis of the bond, generating a node between the nuclei
- s-p mixing
- change that causes σ_p orbitals to be less stable than π_p orbitals due to the mixing of s and p-based molecular orbitals of similar energies.
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