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H 2 1sσ* antibonding molecular orbital. In theoretical chemistry, an antibonding orbital is a type of molecular orbital that weakens the chemical bond between two atoms and helps to raise the energy of the molecule relative to the separated atoms. Such an orbital has one or more nodes in the bonding region between the nuclei.
A pi bond can exist between two atoms that do not have a net sigma-bonding effect between them. In certain metal complexes, pi interactions between a metal atom and alkyne and alkene pi antibonding orbitals form pi-bonds. In some cases of multiple bonds between two atoms, there is no net sigma-bonding at all, only pi bonds.
These orbitals and typically given the notation σ (sigma bonding), π (pi bonding), n (occupied nonbonding orbital, "lone pair"), p (unoccupied nonbonding orbital, "empty p orbital"; the symbol n* for unoccupied nonbonding orbital is seldom used), π* (pi antibonding), and σ* (sigma antibonding). (Woodward and Hoffmann use ω for nonbonding ...
The resulting bonding orbital has its electron density in the shape of two lobes above and below the plane of the molecule. The orbital is not symmetric around the molecular axis and is therefore a pi orbital. The antibonding pi orbital (also asymmetrical) has four lobes pointing away from the nuclei.
Antibonding interactions between atomic orbitals are destructive (out-of-phase) interactions, with a nodal plane where the wavefunction of the antibonding orbital is zero between the two interacting atoms; Antibonding MOs are higher in energy than the atomic orbitals that combine to produce them. Nonbonding MOs:
Thus, when excited with the requisite amount of energy through high-frequency light or other means, electrons can transition to higher-energy molecular orbitals. For instance, in the simple case of a hydrogen diatomic molecule, promotion of a single electron from a bonding orbital to an antibonding orbital can occur under UV radiation.
Likewise, promotion of an electron from a pi-bonding orbital (π) to an antibonding pi orbital (π*) is denoted as a π → π* transition. Auxochromes with free electron pairs (denoted as "n") have their own transitions, as do aromatic pi bond transitions.
The MO diagram for dihydrogen. In the classic example of the H 2 MO, the two separate H atoms have identical atomic orbitals. When creating the molecule dihydrogen, the individual valence orbitals, 1s, either: merge in phase to get bonding orbitals, where the electron density is in between the nuclei of the atoms; or, merge out of phase to get antibonding orbitals, where the electron density ...