Carbon tetravalent model

Tetravalent silicon is the only structural feature in all silicon sources in nature, e.g. the silicates and silica even elemental silicon exhibits tetravalency. Tetravalent silicon is considered to be an ana-logon to its group 14 homologue carbon and in fact there are a lot of similarities in the chemistry of both elements. Furthermore, silicon is tetravalent in all industrially used compounds, e.g. silanes, polymers, ceramics, and fumed silica. Also the reactions of subvalent and / or low coordinated silicon compounds normally lead back to tetravalent silicon species. It is therefore not surprising that more than 90% of the relevant literature deals with tetravalent silicon. The following examples illustrate why "ordinary" tetravalent silicon is still an attractive field for research activities Simple and small tetravalent silicon compounds - sometimes very difficult to synthesize - are used by theoreticians and preparative chemists as model compounds for a deeper insight into structural features and the study of the reactivity influenced by different substituents on the silicon center. As an example for industrial applications, the chemical vapor decomposition (CVD) of appropriate silicon precursors to produce thin ceramic coatings on various substrates may be mentioned. 

In chemical shift calculations for acylium ions, it was not necessary to model the ionic lattice to obtain accurate values. These ions have tetravalent carbons with no formally empty orbitals, as verified by natural bond orbital calculations (89). Shift calculations for simple carbenium ions with formally empty orbitals may require treatment of the medium. We prepared the isopropyl cation by the adsorption of 2-bromopropane-2-13C onto frozen SbF5 at 223 K and obtained a 13C CP/MAS spectrum at 83 K (53). Analysis of the spinning sidebands yielded experimental values of = 497 ppm, 822 = 385 ppm, and (%3 = 77 ppm. The isotropic 13C shift, 320 ppm, is within 1 ppm of the value in magic acid solution (17). Other NMR evidence includes dipolar dephasing experiments and observation at higher temperature of a scalar doublet ( c-h = 165 Hz) for the cation center. 

The s and p orbitals used in the quantum mechanical description of the carbon atom, given in Section 1.10, were based on calculations for hydrogen atoms. These simple s and p orbitals do not, when taken alone, provide a satisfactory model for the tetravalent— tetrahedral carbon of methane (CH4, see Practice Problem 1.22). However, a satisfactory model of methane s structure that is based on quantum mechanics can be obtained through an approach called orbital hybridization. Orbital hybridization, in its simplest terms, is nothing more than a mathematical approach that involves the combining of individual wave functions for r and p orbitals to obtain wave functions for new orbitals. The new orbitals have, in varying proportions, the properties of the original orbitals taken separately. These new orbitals are called hybrid atomic orbitals. 

Methane is the simplest hydrocarbon. Physical and chemical studies show that all four C—H bonds are identical in length and strength and the molecule has a tetrahedral geometry with bond angles of 109.5°—consistent with the VSEPR model. How can we explain the tetravalency of carbon within the VB approach In its ground state, the electron configuration of carbon is [He]2/2p. Because the carbon... 

Hybrid orbital methods differ from the link atom models in that no extra atoms are introduced into the system. Instead, an atom (usually a tetravalent sp carbon) at the covalent boundary is designed to have both a QM and a MM character. This is typically done by defining a set of hybrid sp orbitals on the atom, some of which are fixed and not included in the QM calculation and the remainder of which are allowed to participate. 

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