Electrons nonbonding

A covalent bond consists of a shared pair of electrons. Nonbonded electrons important to the reaction mechanism are designated by dots (— OH). Curved arrows (<- ) represent the movement of electron pairs. For movement of a single electron (as in a free radical reaction), a single-headed (fishhook-type) arrow is used ( ). Most reaction steps involve an unshared electron pair (as in the chymotrypsin mechanism). 

Formal charge = valence electrons — j (bonding electrons) — nonbonding electrons [8.11]... 

In some diradicals the two partially filled MOs are both n orbitals, and the electrons in them are, consequently, delocalized. Diradicals for which Kekul6 structures cannot be written without leaving two n electrons nonbonded are called nonKekul6 diradicals. Trimethylenemethane [C(CH2)3] and tetramethyleneethane [(H2C)2CC(CH2>2] are both diradicals of this type, and they and other nonKekul6 diradicals are discussed in Section 5. 

Conjugated hydrocarbons for which all Kekul structures leave two n electrons nonbonded are called non-Kekule diradicals. Longuet-Higgins proved that, unless such molecules have rings with 4/i atoms, these molecules do indeed contain two NBMOs that are occupied by a total of two electrons. As shown in Figure 10. trimethylenemethane (TMM), tetramethyleneethane (TME), m-benzoquinodimethane (MBQDM) and tetramethyleneben-zene (TMB) are all non-Kekule diradicals. 

The nonbonding electrons of the nitrogen atom are important in determining spin re-pairing, and thus the conical intersections. This is the physical origin of the topicity concept developed by Salem and co-workers [2,30]. Two different spin... 

Parallel molecular dynamics codes are distinguished by their methods of dividing the force evaluation workload among the processors (or nodes). The force evaluation is naturally divided into bonded terms, approximating the effects of covalent bonds and involving up to four nearby atoms, and pairwise nonbonded terms, which account for the electrostatic, dispersive, and electronic repulsion interactions between atoms that are not covalently bonded. The nonbonded forces involve interactions between all pairs of particles in the system and hence require time proportional to the square of the number of atoms. Even when neglected outside of a cutoff, nonbonded force evaluations represent the vast majority of work involved in a molecular dynamics simulation. 

The allyl free radical with 3 electrons, 2 in the bunding orbital and I in the nonbonding orbital, has... 

Its charge density distribution is like that of the cation (with sign reversal) because the added electron goes into the nonbonded orbital with a node at the central carbon atom. The probability of finding that electron precisely at the central carbon atom is zero. 

Nonbonded electron pair donors (w-donors) are expectedly readily protonated (or coordinated) with superacids. Remarkably, this includes even xenon, long considered an inert gas. The protonation of some 7T-, (T- and -bases and their subsequent ionization to carbocations or onium ions is depicted as follows ... 

In superacidic systems, water is completely protonated and no equilibrium containing free water is indicated. However, the nonbonded electron pair of H30 is still a potential electron donor and at very high acidities can be further protonated (however limited the equilibrium with H30 may be). Thus the acidity of such superacidic systems can exceed that of H30 and the leveling ont is by that of H40 . We found that similar situations exist with other electrophiles, raising their electrophilic nature (electrophilicity) substantially. 

Nonbonded interactions are the forces be tween atoms that aren t bonded to one another they may be either attractive or repulsive It often happens that the shape of a molecule may cause two atoms to be close in space even though they are sep arated from each other by many bonds Induced dipole/induced dipole interactions make van der Waals forces in alkanes weakly attractive at most distances but when two atoms are closer to each other than the sum of their van der Waals radii nuclear-nuclear and electron-electron repulsive forces between them dominate the fvan derwaais term The resulting destabilization is called van der Waals strain... 

Molecular Interaction. The examples of gas lasers described above involve the formation of chemical compounds in their excited states, produced by reaction between positive and negative ions. However, molecules can also interact in a formally nonbonding sense to give complexes of very short lifetimes, as when atoms or molecules collide with each other. If these sticky collisions take place with one of the molecules in an electronically excited state and the other in its ground state, then an excited-state complex (an exciplex) is formed, in which energy can be transferred from the excited-state molecule to the ground-state molecule. The process is illustrated in Figure 18.12. 

The nonbonding electron clouds of the attached fluorine atoms tend to repel the oncoming fluorine molecules as they approach the carbon skeleton. This reduces the number of effective coUisions, making it possible to increase the total number of coUisions and stiU not accelerate the reaction rate as the reaction proceeds toward completion. This protective sheath of fluorine atoms provides the inertness of Teflon and other fluorocarbons. It also explains the fact that greater success in direct fluorination processes has been reported when the hydrocarbon to be fluorinated had already been partiaUy fluorinated by some other process or was prechlorinated, ie, the protective sheath of halogens reduced the number of reactive coUisions and aUowed reactions to occur without excessive cleavage of carbon—carbon bonds or mnaway exothermic processes. 

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