Ethylene ground state

Figure 2.25 Energy levels (left) and Hiickel MOs (right) for ethylene ground state (N = 2)...

We have already obtained solutions for localized ground-state ethylene leading to the energy F = 2"z -h 2(3, In looking at allyl. the next more complicated case, we can regard it as an isolated double bond between two carbons to which an. y/z carbon is attached. 

For the ground state of ethylene you would fill the bottom 3 levels (the C-C, C-H, and n bonding orbitals), with 12 eleetrons. 

For some systems a single determinant (SCFcalculation) is insufficient to describe the electronic wave function. For example, square cyclobutadiene and twisted ethylene require at least two configurations to describe their ground states. To allow several configurations to be used, a multi-electron configuration interaction technique has been implemented in HyperChem. 

In a molecule with electrons in n orbitals, such as formaldehyde, ethylene, buta-1,3-diene and benzene, if we are concerned only with the ground state, or excited states obtained by electron promotion within 7i-type MOs, an approximate MO method due to Hiickel may be useM. 

Fig. 1. Examples of temperature dependence of the rate constant for the reactions in which the low-temperature rate-constant limit has been observed 1. hydrogen transfer in the excited singlet state of the molecule represented by (6.16) 2. molecular reorientation in methane crystal 3. internal rotation of CHj group in radical (6.25) 4. inversion of radical (6.40) 5. hydrogen transfer in halved molecule (6.16) 6. isomerization of molecule (6.17) in excited triplet state 7. tautomerization in the ground state of 7-azoindole dimer (6.1) 8. polymerization of formaldehyde in reaction (6.44) 9. limiting stage (6.45) of (a) chain hydrobromination, (b) chlorination and (c) bromination of ethylene 10. isomerization of radical (6.18) 11. abstraction of H atom by methyl radical from methanol matrix [reaction (6.19)] 12. radical pair isomerization in dimethylglyoxime crystals [Toriyama et al. 1977].

When the orbitals have been classified with respect to symmetry, they can be arranged according to energy and the correlation lines can be drawn as in Fig. 11.10. From the orbital correlation diagram, it can be concluded that the thermal concerted cycloadditon reaction between butadiene and ethylene is allowed. All bonding levels of the reactants correlate with product ground-state orbitals. Extension of orbital correlation analysis to cycloaddition reactions involving other numbers of n electrons leads to the conclusion that the suprafacial-suprafacial addition is allowed for systems with 4n + 2 n electrons but forbidden for systems with 4n 7t electrons. 

The complementary relationship between thermal and photochemical reactions can be illustrated by considering some of the same reaction types discussed in Chapter 11 and applying orbital symmetry considerations to the photochemical mode of reaction. The case of [2ti + 2ti] cycloaddition of two alkenes can serve as an example. This reaction was classified as a forbidden thermal reaction (Section 11.3) The correlation diagram for cycloaddition of two ethylene molecules (Fig. 13.2) shows that the ground-state molecules would lead to an excited state of cyclobutane and that the cycloaddition would therefore involve a prohibitive thermal activation energy. 

Coordination compounds with delocalised ground states. The transition metal derivatives of dithioketones and ethylene(l,2)dithiolates (metal dithienes). G. N. Schrauzer, Acc. Chem. Res., 1969,2,72-80 (36). 

Fig. 6 The n energy levels of ethylene. The asterisk, identifies the antibonding orbital, while the two arrows represent the two electrons with antiparallel spins corresponding to the configuration of the ground state (see text).

We will now discuss some very recent applications of the soft El ionization method for product detection in CMB experiments. We will first deal with two polyatomic reactions of ground state oxygen atoms with unsaturated hydrocarbons (acetylene and ethylene) these reactions are characterized by multiple reaction pathways and are of great relevance, besides being from a fundamental point of view, in combustion and atmospheric chemistry. 

Figure 9.1. Potential energy diagram for the electronic states of ethylene N, ground state (w)2 r(3Biu) first excited triplet state (mr ) V, first excited singlet state (wir ) Z, two-electron excitation (w )2. For the ion C2H + R and R, Rydberg states, /, / ground and excited states. [From Ref. 2(c).]...

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