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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.
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Atomic Orbital
A hydrogenic wavefunction, e.g. 1s, 2p, 3d.
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Bond
That which holds together atoms in molecules and ions in lattices.
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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.
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Bond Order
The difference between the number of bonding electron pairs an the number of antibonding electron pairs in a molecule.
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Covalent Bond
A bond that results from a sharing of electrons between nuclei.
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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.
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Ion
A charged species created by the gain or loss of an electron from an atom or neutral molecule.
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Ionic Bond
A bond that results from electrostatic attraction between oppositely charged ions. The cation is positively charged, while the anion is negatively charged.
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Lattice
A regularly repeating three-dimensional array of atoms, molecules, or ions.
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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.
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Lone Pair
A nonbonding pair of electrons.
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Molecule
A chemical species containing a covalent bond.
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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.
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Molecular Orbital Theory
A description of bonding that combines atomic orbitals from each bonded atom to produce a set of molecular orbitals.
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Orbital Correlation Diagram
Discussed in Molecular Orbital Theory, Heading , such diagrams show the relative energy and the parentage of molecular orbitals from atomic orbitals.
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Overlap
A measure of how well two orbitals constructively interfere with one another.
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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.