Molecular Orbitals
Terms
Antibonding Molecular Orbital
-
A molecular orbital that results from an out-of-phase overlap of
atomic orbitals to produce
an orbital that is higher in energy than either of its parent molecular
orbitals.
Atomic Orbital
-
A hydrogenic wavefunction, e.g. 1s, 2p, 3d.
Bond
-
That which holds together atoms in molecules and ions in lattices.
Bonding Molecular Orbital
-
A molecular orbital that results from an in-phase overlap of atomic
orbitals that has a lower energy
than either of its parent atomic orbitals.
Bond Order
-
The difference between the number of bonding electron pairs an the number
of antibonding electron
pairs in a molecule.
Covalent Bond
-
A bond that results from a sharing of electrons between nuclei.
Hybridization
-
The process by which atomic orbitals are combined to produce a new set
of orbitals suitable for
use in a discussion of bonding in polynuclear atoms.
Ion
-
A charged species created by the gain or loss of an electron from an atom
or neutral molecule.
Ionic Bond
-
A bond that results from electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged
ions. The cation is
positively charged, while the anion is negatively charged.
Lattice
-
A regularly repeating three-dimensional array of atoms,
molecules, or
ions.
Lewis Structure
-
A description of a covalent bond whereby electrons are represented by dots
and a
bond is represented
by placing a line between the two atoms in that bond. Only valence
electrons
are shown in Lewis
structures.
Lone Pair
-
A nonbonding pair of electrons.
Molecule
-
A chemical species containing a covalent bond.
Molecular Orbital
-
A combination of atomic orbitals in molecular orbital theory that
provides an orbital description
of a molecule analogous to the atomic orbital description of atoms.
Molecular Orbital Theory
-
A description of bonding that combines atomic orbitals from each bonded
atom to produce a set of
molecular orbitals.
Orbital Correlation Diagram
-
Discussed in Molecular Orbital Theory, Heading , such diagrams
show the relative
energy and the parentage of molecular orbitals from atomic orbitals.
Overlap
-
A measure of how well two orbitals constructively interfere with one another.
Valence Shell Electron Pair Repulsion Theory
-
A theory used to predict bonding geometries that states that electron pairs
will be distributed about the
central atom to minimize electron pair repulsions.
