Electronic configurations description

Coulomb potential felt by a 2p orbital s electron at a point r in the ls 2s 2p 2p configuration description of the carbon atom is ... 

In practice, each CSF is a Slater determinant of molecular orbitals, which are divided into three types inactive (doubly occupied), virtual (unoccupied), and active (variable occupancy). The active orbitals are used to build up the various CSFs, and so introduce flexibility into the wave function by including configurations that can describe different situations. Approximate electronic-state wave functions are then provided by the eigenfunctions of the electronic Flamiltonian in the CSF basis. This contrasts to standard FIF theory in which only a single determinant is used, without active orbitals. The use of CSFs, gives the MCSCF wave function a structure that can be interpreted using chemical pictures of electronic configurations [229]. An interpretation in terms of valence bond sti uctures has also been developed, which is very useful for description of a chemical process (see the appendix in [230] and references cited therein). 

As proven in Chapter 13.Ill, this two-configuration description of Be s electronic structure is equivalent to a description is which two electrons reside in the Is orbital (with opposite, a and (3 spins) while the other pair reside in 2s-2p hybrid orbitals (more correctly, polarized orbitals) in a manner that instantaneously correlates their motions ... 

The electron configuration is the orbital description of the locations of the electrons in an unexcited atom. Using principles of physics, chemists can predict how atoms will react based upon the electron configuration. They can predict properties such as stability, boiling point, and conductivity. Typically, only the outermost electron shells matter in chemistry, so we truncate the inner electron shell notation by replacing the long-hand orbital description with the symbol for a noble gas in brackets. This method of notation vastly simplifies the description for large molecules. 

A CASSCF calculation is a combination of an SCF computation with a full Configuration Interaction calculation involving a subset of the orbitals. The orbitals involved in the Cl are known as the active space. In this way, the CASSCF method optimizes the orbitals appropriately for the excited state. In contrast, the Cl-Singles method uses SCF orbitals for the excited state. Since Hartree-Fock orbitals are biased toward the ground state, a CASSCF description of the excited state electronic configuration is often an improvement. 

It can now be seen that there is a direct and simple correspondence between this description of electronic structure and the form of the periodic table. Hydrogen, with 1 proton and 1 electron, is the first element, and, in the ground state (i.e. the state of lowest energy) it has the electronic configuration ls with zero orbital angular momentum. Helium, 2 = 2, has the configuration Is, and this completes the first period since no... 

You are probably used to this idea from descriptive chemistry, where we build up the configurations for many-electron atoms in terms of atomic wavefunctions, and where we would write an electronic configuration for Ne as... 

We would normally write the electronic ground state electron configuration of a carbon atom as ls-2s 2p-. Despite the intellectual activity that has gone into defining mythical valence states for carbon atoms in different bonding situations, no one would include a d-orbital in the description of ground state carbon. 

Ion formation is only one pattern of chemical behavior. Many other chemical trends can be traced ultimately to valence electron configurations, but we need the description of chemical bonding that appears in Chapters 9 and 10 to explain such periodic properties. Nevertheless, we can relate important patterns in chemical behavior to the ability of some elements to form ions. One example is the subdivision of the periodic table into metals, nonmetals, and metalloids, first introduced in Chapter 1. 

Lewis structures are blueprints that show the distribution of valence electrons in molecules. However, the dots and lines of a Lewis structure do not show any details of how bonds form, how molecules react, or the shape of a molecule. In this respect, a Lewis structure is like the electron configuration of an atom both tell us about electron distributions, but neither provides detailed descriptions. Just as we need atomic orbitals to understand how electrons are distributed in an atom, we need an orbital view to understand how electrons are distributed in a molecule. 

Electron configurations of transition metal complexes are governed by the principles described in Chapters. The Pauli exclusion principle states that no two electrons can have identical descriptions, and Hund s rule requires that all unpaired electrons have the same spin orientation. These concepts are used in Chapter 8 for atomic configurations and in Chapters 9 and 10 to describe the electron configurations of molecules. They also determine the electron configurations of transition metal complexes. 

Table B.l summarizes the ground-state electron configuration and formal APH indices (turn number t, angular number l-n) for each known element, together with atomic number (Z) and relative atomic mass). As shown by the asterisks in the Anal column, 20 elements exhibit anomalous electron configurations (including two that are doubly anomalous - Pd and Th), compared with idealized t/l-n APH descriptors. These are particularly concentrated in the first d-block series, as well as among the early actinides. Such anomalies are indicative of configurational near-degeneracies that may require sophisticated multi-reference approximation methods for accurate description.

Here, because of the strong Fe/02 mixing, classification of these orbitals as Fe or 02 character is not straightforward. Hence, neither the FeIH-02 nor the Fen-02 formal description is applicable here. The change in electronic configuration (A -> B),... 

In Table 29.1, we summarized our results of electronic structure calculations for Bf -Bjj. We reported symmetry, spectroscopic state, valence electronic configuration, number of 2c-2e peripheral B-B a-bonds, number of delocalized o- and TT-bonds, and assignment of global aromaticity/antiaromaticity. The description of chemical bonding in terms of 2c-2e peripheral B-B a-bonds and nc-2e delocalized a- and tt-bonds was obtained via AdNDP method at... 

Electronegativity, Mendeleev number, Miedema parameters. A few semi-empirical parameters and scales which are useful as reference data in the systematic description (or even prediction) of the alloying behaviour of the different metals will be presented here also as an introduction to the following paragraphs. The closely related basic concepts of chemical periodicity and electron configurations will be reminded in Chapter 4. 

Use the aufbau principle to write complete electron configurations for the atom of the element that fits the following descriptions. 

One of the simplest descriptions of the crystalline field occurs for the d outer electronic configuration (i.e., for a single d valence electron). This means that //ee = 0 and, consequently, there is no distinction between intermediate and strong crystalline fields. 

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