Electrons orbitals

Electrons are tiny and move very fast, so it is useful to think of them as a mist of negative charge concentrated in a region of space (e.g., in a bond). Organic chemists call this mist an electron cloud. 

An orbital is the three-dimensional region of space where this electron cloud is likely to be found. 

Shell No. 2 was previously shown as an orbit holding up to eight electrons. Here we show it as four orbitals 2s, 2px, 2py and 2p Each orbital can be empty (zero e ), half-filled (one e ) or full (two e ). 

An electron in a 2s orbital is lower in potential energy than an electron in any of the three 2p orbitals because the territory of an 5 orbital is closer (on average) to the nucleus than that ofa.p orbital. A l orbital is so low in energy that it is not considered part of the valence shell. 

A bond is formed by an overlap of orbitals. We will eneounter two types of bonds in this course head-to-head overlaps called (a) sigma bonds, and side-to-side overlaps called (k) pi bonds. 

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It is possible to write down a many-body wavefiinction that will reflect the antisynmietric nature of the wavefiinction. In this discussion, the spin coordinate of each electron needs to be explicitly treated. The coordinates of an electron may be specified by rs. where s. represents the spin coordinate. Starting with one-electron orbitals, ( ). (r. s), the following fomi can be invoked ... 

For a free electron gas, it is possible to evaluate the Flartree-Fock exchange energy directly [3, 16]. The Slater detemiinant is constructed using ftee electron orbitals. Each orbital is labelled by a k and a spin index. The Coulomb... 

In a number of classic papers Hohenberg, Kohn and Sham established a theoretical framework for justifying the replacement of die many-body wavefiinction by one-electron orbitals [15, 20, 21]. In particular, they proposed that die charge density plays a central role in describing the electronic stnicture of matter. A key aspect of their work was the local density approximation (LDA). Within this approximation, one can express the exchange energy as... 

The two primary causes of shielding by electrons are diamagnetism and temperature-independent paramagnetism (TIP). Diamagnetism arises from the slight unpairing of electron orbits under the influence of the magnetic field. This always occurs so as to oppose the field and was first analysed by Lamb [7]. A simplified version of his fomuila. 

Each nucleus serves merely to report the behaviour of the same electron orbitals, except for very small effects of isotopic mass on these orbitals. 

In the Bom-Oppenlieimer [1] model, it is assumed that the electrons move so quickly that they can adjust their motions essentially instantaneously with respect to any movements of the heavier and slower atomic nuclei. In typical molecules, the valence electrons orbit about the nuclei about once every 10 s (the iimer-shell electrons move even faster), while the bonds vibrate every 10 s, and the molecule rotates... 

Hiickel-type systems (such as Hilcfcel pericyclic reactions and suprafacial sigmatropic shifts) obey the same rules as for sigma electron. The rationale for this observation is clear If the overlap between adjacent p-electron orbitals is positive along the reaction coordinate, only the peraiutational mechanism can... 

When the molecule is not in a S state there is an interaction between the rotation of the molecule and S and/or L, and the details of coupling the angular momenta are involved. Most nonsinglet molecules with electronic orbital angular momentum A = 0 obey Hund s case (b) coupling. In Case (b), the electronic orbital angular momentum combines with the nuclear orbital angular... 

VV e now wish to establish the general functional form of possible wavefunctions for the two electrons in this pseudo helium atom. We will do so by considering first the spatial part of the u a efunction. We will show how to derive functional forms for the wavefunction in which the i change of electrons is independent of the electron labels and does not affect the electron density. The simplest approach is to assume that each wavefunction for the helium atom is the product of the individual one-electron solutions. As we have just seen, this implies that the total energy is equal to the sum of the one-electron orbital energies, which is not correct as ii ignores electron-electron repulsion. Nevertheless, it is a useful illustrative model. The wavefunction of the lowest energy state then has each of the two electrons in a Is orbital ... 

Ihe one-electron orbitals are commonly called basis functions and often correspond to he atomic orbitals. We will label the basis functions with the Greek letters n, v, A and a. n the case of Equation (2.144) there are K basis functions and we should therefore xpect to derive a total of K molecular orbitals (although not all of these will necessarily 3e occupied by electrons). The smallest number of basis functions for a molecular system vill be that which can just accommodate all the electrons in the molecule. More sophisti- ated calculations use more basis functions than a minimal set. At the Hartree-Fock limit he energy of the system can be reduced no further by the addition of any more basis unctions however, it may be possible to lower the energy below the Hartree-Fock limit ay using a functional form of the wavefunction that is more extensive than the single Slater determinant. 

Although we are solving for one-electron orbitals, r /i and r /2, we do not want to fall into the trap of the last calculation. We shall include an extra potential energy term Vi to account for the repulsion between the negative charge on the first electron we consider, electron I, exerted by the other electron in helium, electron 2. We don t know where electron 2 is, so we must integrate over all possible locations of electron 2... 

Returning to the electronic equation, we make the standard orbital assumption that the molecular orbital is a product of single electron orbitals... 

Example The electron configuration for Be is Is lsfi but we write [He]2s where [He] is equivalent to all the electron orbitals in the helium atom. The Letters, s, p, d, and f designate the shape of the orbitals and the superscript gives the number of electrons in that orbital. 

The electronic structure of an infinite crystal is defined by a band structure plot, which gives the energies of electron orbitals for each point in /c-space, called the Brillouin zone. This corresponds to the result of an angle-resolved photo electron spectroscopy experiment. 

In the classical picture of an electron orbiting round the nucleus it would not surprise us to discover that the electron and the nucleus could each spin on its own axis, just like the earth and the moon, and that each has an angular momentum associated with spinning. Unfortunately, although quantum mechanical treatment gives rise to two new angular momenta, one associated with the electron and one with the nucleus, this simple physical... 

Lower-case letters are recommended for the symmetry species of a vibration (and for an electronic orbital) whereas upper-case letters are recommended for the symmetry species of the corresponding wave function. 

Shorter-wavelength radiation promotes transitions between electronic orbitals in atoms and molecules. Valence electrons are excited in the near-uv or visible. At higher energies, in the vacuum uv (vuv), inner-shell transitions begin to occur. Both regions are important to laboratory spectroscopy, but strong absorption by make the vuv unsuitable for atmospheric monitoring. Electronic transitions in molecules are accompanied by stmcture... 

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