Valence bonds benzene

Engelberts JJ, Havenith RWA, van Lenthe JH, Jenneskens LW, Fowler PW (2005) The electronic stmcture of inorganic benzenes valence bond and ring current descriptions. Inorg Chem 44 5266-5274... 

Benzene was probably the fust compound in chemical history where the valence bond concept proved to be insufficient. Localizing the nr-systems, one comes up with two equivalent but different representations. The true bonding in benzene was described as resulting from a resonance between these two representations (Figure 2-46). 

Benzene has already been mentioned as a prime example of the inadequacy of a connection table description, as it cannot adequately be represented by a single valence bond structure. Consequently, whenever some property of an arbitrary molecule is accessed which is influenced by conjugation, the other possible resonance structures have to be at least generated and weighted. Attempts have already been made to derive adequate representations of r-electron systems [84, 85]. 

A is a parameter that can be varied to give the correct amount of ionic character. Another way to view the valence bond picture is that the incorporation of ionic character corrects the overemphasis that the valence bond treatment places on electron correlation. The molecular orbital wavefimction underestimates electron correlation and requires methods such as configuration interaction to correct for it. Although the presence of ionic structures in species such as H2 appears coimterintuitive to many chemists, such species are widely used to explain certain other phenomena such as the ortho/para or meta directing properties of substituted benzene compounds imder electrophilic attack. Moverover, it has been shown that the ionic structures correspond to the deformation of the atomic orbitals when daey are involved in chemical bonds. 

T orbital for benzene obtained from spin-coupled valence bond theory. (Figure redrawn from Gerratt ], D L oer, P B Karadakov and M Raimondi 1997. Modem valence bond theory. Chemical Society Reviews 87 100.) figure also shows the two Kekule and three Dewar benzene forms which contribute to the overall wavefunction Kekuleform contributes approximately 40.5% and each Dewar form approximately 6.4%. 

On the other hand, 2-arylthiazoles are easily isomerized to 3-aryliso-thiazoles in 407o yield upon irradiation with a high-pressure mercury lamp, in benzene solution in the presence of iodine (738). A valence bond isomerization was proposed among several alternatives to account for these results. 

In valence bond terms the pyrazine ring may be represented as a resonance hybrid of a number of canonical structures (e.g. 1-4), with charge separated structures such as (3) contributing significantly, as evidenced by the polar character of the C=N bond in a number of reactions. The fusion of one or two benzene rings in quinoxaline (5) and phenazine (6) clearly increases the number of resonance structures which are available to these systems. 

Several methods of quantitative description of molecular structure based on the concepts of valence bond theory have been developed. These methods employ orbitals similar to localized valence bond orbitals, but permitting modest delocalization. These orbitals allow many fewer structures to be considered and remove the need for incorporating many ionic structures, in agreement with chemical intuition. To date, these methods have not been as widely applied in organic chemistry as MO calculations. They have, however, been successfully applied to fundamental structural issues. For example, successful quantitative treatments of the structure and energy of benzene and its heterocyclic analogs have been developed. It remains to be seen whether computations based on DFT and modem valence bond theory will come to rival the widely used MO programs in analysis and interpretation of stmcture and reactivity. 

UV irradiafion of perfluoro o, m-, and p-xylenes in the gas phase gives a mixture of all possible Dewar benzene isomers Prismane valence bond isomers are proposed to be intermediates [148]... 

Benzene is described by valence-bond theory as a resonance hybrid of two equivalent structures. 

As pointed out in Chapter 7, the atomic orbital (valence bond) model regards benzene as a resonance hybrid of the two structures... 

McWeeny, R., Proc. Roy. Soc. (London) A227, 288, The valence-bond theory of molecular structure. III. Cyclobutadiene and benzene." f. 

Three years ago it was pointed out2 that observed values of interatomic distances provide useful information regarding the electronic structures of molecules and especially regarding resonance between two or more valence bond structures. On the basis of the available information it was concluded that resonance between two or more structures leads to interatomic distances nearly as small Us the smallest of those for the individual structures. For example, in benzene each carbon-carbon bond resonates about equally between a single bond and a double bond (as given by the two Kekul6 structures) the observed carbon-carbon distance, 1.39 A., is much closer to the carbon-carbon double bond distance, 1.38 A., than to the shrgle bond distance, 1.54 A. 

This hypothetical benzene molecule would accordingly oscillate for some time about the configuration a, with essentially the valence-bond structure I it might then pass through the configuration b, with resonance to structure II becoming complete, and then oscillate for some time about configuration c, with essentially the valence-bond structure II. 

The chemical properties of this hypothetical benzene would be just those expected for the valence-bond structures I and II, and, indeed, the substance would be correctly described as a mixture of these two isomers or tautomers. 

It is often asked whether or not the constituent structures of a resonating system, such as the Kekul4 structures for the benzene molecule, are to be considered as having reality. There is one sense in which this question may be answered in the affirmative but the answer is definitely negative if the usual chemical significance is attributed to the structures. A substance showing resonance between two or more valence-bond structures does not contain molecules with the configurations and properties usually associated with these structures. The constituent structures of the resonance hybrid do not have reality in this sense. 

The question may also be discussed in a different way. The stable equilibrium configuration of the nuclei of a benzene molecule is not that appropriate to either of the two Kekul6 structures, but is the intermediate hexagonal configuration. The valence-bond structures I and II are hence to be interpreted as being... 

Figure 2.7 Valence-bond (resonance) approach to the structure of benzene...

Benzyne reacts with benzene to give a mixture of products in low yield. The original experiments 38> showed that the 1,4-cyclo-adduct (benzo-barrelene) (19), the valence-bond isomerised 1,2-cyclo-adduct (benzo-cyclo-octatetraene) (20), and the product of insertion into a carbon-hydrogen bond (biphenyl) (21), were obtained in 2,8, and 6% yields respectively. 

It is wrong (but common) to see a reversible reaction written with a double-headed arrow, as A B. Such an arrow implies resonance, e.g. between the two extreme valence-bond structures of Kekule benzene. 

The so-called unsaturated properties of benzene and other hydrocarbons, their ability to "soak up" more hydrogen, for example, resulted in cartoonlike graphic representations for the valence bond.80 Thus ... 

Quantum-chemical cluster models, 34 131-202 computer programs, 34 134 methods, 34 135-138 for chemisorption, 34 135 the local approach, 34 132 molecular orbital methods, 34 135 for surface structures, 34 135 valence bond method, 34 135 Quantum chemistry, heat of chemisorption determination, 37 151-154 Quantum conversion, in chloroplasts, 14 1 Quantum mechanical simulations bond activation, 42 2, 84—107 Quasi-elastic neutron scattering benzene... 

In an early application to butadiene [16], and later to the ground and excited states of benzene [17], Berry analyzed MO-based wavefunctions using valence bond concepts, simply by considering the overlaps with nonorthogonal VB structures. Somewhat closer than this to a CASVB type of approach, are the procedures employed by Linnett and coworkers, in which small Cl wavefunctions were transformed (exactly) to nonorthogonal representations [18-20]. The main limitation in their case was on the size of systems that may be treated (the authors considered no more than four-electron systems), both because this non-linear transformation must exist, and because it must be possible to obtain it with reasonable effort. 

As is well-known, modem valence-bond (VB) theory in its spin-coupled (SC) form (for a recent review, see Ref. 7) provides an alternative description of benzene [8-10] which, in qualitative terms, is no less convincing and is arguably even more intuitive than the MO picture with delocalized orbitals. The six n electrons are accommodated within a single product of six nonorthogonal orbitals, the spins of which are coupled in all five possible ways that lead to an overall six-electron singlet. The simultaneous optimization of the orbitals and of the weights of the five six-electron singlet spin... 

---