Acetylene, bonding molecular orbitals

Note how we have resorted to another form of representation of the ethane, ethylene, and acetylene molecules here, representations that are probably familiar to you (see Section 1.1). These line drawings are simpler, much easier to draw, and clearly show how the atoms are bonded - we use a line to indicate the bonding molecular orbital. They do not show the difference between a and rr bonds, however. We also introduce here the way in which we can represent the tetrahedral array of bonds around carbon in a two-dimensional drawing. This is to use wedges and dots for bonds instead of lines. By convention, the wedge means the bond is coming towards you, out of the plane of the paper. The dotted bond means it is going away from you, behind the plane of the paper. We shall discuss stereochemical representations in more detail later (see Section 3.1). 

The molecular orbital energy stacking diagram for free acetylene is shown in Fig. 12. It can be seen that all the available bonding molecular orbitals are filled and that the free ligand has formal triple bond character. Upon coordination to a metal atom, the C-C vector lies perpendicular to the er-bonding orbital on the metal and donates electron density from a filled 7i-bonding orbital, as illustrated in Fig. 13. 

Atomic Structure The Nucleus Atomic Structure Orbitals 4 Atomic Structure Electron Configurations 6 Development of Chemical Bonding Theory 7 The Nature of Chemical Bonds Valence Bond Theory sp Hybrid Orbitals and the Structure of Methane 12 sp Hybrid Orbitals and the Structure of Ethane 13 sp2 Hybrid Orbitals and the Structure of Ethylene 14 sp Hybrid Orbitals and the Structure of Acetylene 17 Hybridization of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur 18 The Nature of Chemical Bonds Molecular Orbital Theory 20 Drawing Chemical Structures 21 Summary 24... 

With regard to the different points of view outlined in (a), (b) and (c), it should be pointed out that these differences arise mainly from the use of localized (a, LMO), or canonical (CMO, b, and c) molecular orbitals. In principle LMOs and CMOs are equivalent and are related by a unitary transformation. This can be illustrated by the C=C bonding in acetylene. 

Figure 10-30 shows the constmction of the 2 -based molecular orbitals. One pair of MOs forms from the p orbitals that point toward each other along the bond axis. By convention, we label this as the z-axis. This end-on overlap gives Cp and

Chemists are familiar with the molecular orbitals of simple molecules. They recognize the c and n orbitals of acetylene, and readily associate these with the molecule s o and 7t bonds. 

Note, however, that even in such a simple case as this, molecular orbitals do not correspond one-to-one with bonds. For example, the highest-energy a orbital in acetylene is clearly made up of both CC and CH bonding components. The reason, as pointed out in Chapter 2, is that molecular orbitals are written as linear combinations of nuclear-centered basis functions, and will generally be completely delocalized over the entire nuclear skeleton. 

The main result that emerges from the discussions of particular eases is that it has proved possible to give a description of a molecule in terms of equivalent orbitals which are approximately localised, but which can be-transformed into delocalised molecular orbitals without any change in the value of the total wave function. The equivalent orbitals are closely associated with the interpretation of a chemical bond in the theory, for, in a saturated molecule, the equivalent orbitals are mainly localised about two atoms, or correspond to lone-pair electrons. Double and triple bonds in molecules such as ethylene and acetylene are represented as bent single bonds, although the rather less localised o-n description is equally valid. 

This reduces the energy of low-lying vacant molecular orbitals of free acetylene in this complex, as compared with analogous orbitals of free acetylene, and consequently the triple bond becomes more accessible to nucleophilic attack. As for nucleophiles, they become supernucleophiles in superbase media because of a sharp increase in their energy (76G817 77AP0133). 

The qualitative picture of o and k molecular orbitals can be extended to molecules with three or more atoms. Thus the double bond of ethylene, H2C=CH2, and the triple bond of acetylene, HC=CH, can be... 

The field of acetylene complex chemistry continues to develop rapidly and to yield novel discoveries. A number of recent reviews 1-10) covers various facets including preparation, structure, nature of bonding, stoichiometric and catalytic reactions, and specific aspects with particular metals. The first part of this account is confined to those facets associated with the nature of the interactions between acetylenes and transition metals and to the insertion reactions of complexes closely related to catalysis. Although only scattered data are available, attempts will be made to give a consistent interpretation of the reactivities of coordinated acetylene in terms of a qualitative molecular orbital picture. 

PE spectra of the two angle strained cyclopolyynes 1,5-cyclooctadiyne (35)177) and the twelve membered tetraacetylene (43)88) have been measured and interpreted with the aid of semiempirical and ab initio molecular orbital calculations. In both compounds evidence for through-space and through-bond interactions between the acetylene moieties has been found 88,177). The compound (43) has been described on the basis of these results as weakly antiaromatic88). 

It may seem somewhat anomalous that the value of 37HH in the linear molecule acetylene (H-C=C-H) is only 9 Hz, because both the presence of the triple bond (cr + 2 n) and s-character effects might have led us to predict a larger value. The problem here is that the two C-H molecular orbitals are collinear (and face opposite directions), so there is no dihedral angle. 

Ultra high vacuum studies of nickel and platinum with simple organic molecules like olefins and arenes are described. These surface chemistry studies were done as a function of surface crystallography and surface composition. The discussion is limited to the chemistry of methyl isocyanide, acetonitrile, benzene and toluene, pyridine, trimethylphosphine, ethylene, acetylene and saturated hydrocarbons. Molecular orbital calculations are presented that support the experimental identification of the importance of C-H-M metal bonding for metal surfaces. 

M—has also been reported for olefins and acetylenes ir-bonded to rhodium and to platinum (6, 21, 46, 87). In the case of rhodium, iy(i°3Rh—is between 10 and 16 Hz for a 7r-bonded olefin (see Table XXVII), while for the cr-bonded carbon in [(C5H5)Rh(ff-C3Hs)-(w-CsHb)], 7( ° Rh—is 26 Hz. It was suggested the bonding of the olefin results from a 60% contribution from a dsp -vnet X orbital and sp -carbon orbital 21). For the olefins and acetylenes w-bonded to platinum 7( Pt—is between 18 and 195 Hz (see Table XXIX) compared to the range of 360 to 1000 Hz reported for carbon cr-bonded to platinum. It was found that 7( Pt— C) is less for a 7r-bonded acetylene than for a rr-bonded ethylene. This was considered as evidence for the Chatt-Dewar-Duncanson molecular orbital model 39, 63) of TT-bonding (XIV), rather than the formally equivalent valence-bond treatment, (XV) and (XVI) 46). However, no allowance appears to have been made for the effect on the hybridization at the carbon of the pseudo-... 

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