Hypervalent molecules, hypervalence

A variation on MNDO is MNDO/d. This is an equivalent formulation including d orbitals. This improves predicted geometry of hypervalent molecules. This method is sometimes used for modeling transition metal systems, but its accuracy is highly dependent on the individual system being studied. There is also a MNDOC method that includes electron correlation. 

It includes a significant number of molecules with unusual electronic states (for example, ions, open shell systems and hypervalent systems). 

Hypervalent molecules incorporate elements with more than a normal complement of eight valence electrons (an octet). 

Phosphorous ylides such as triphenylphosphine-metJhylidene may either be represented as hypervalent species incorporating a phosphorous-carbon double bond, or in terms of a zwitterion, that is, a molecule with separated positive and negative charges. 

Examine the charge on the methylidene group, as well as the magnitude and direction of the molecule s dipole moment. Are they consistent with representation of the ylide as a hypervalent molecule or as a zwitterion ... 

Three basis sets (minimal s-p, extended s-p and minimal s-p with d functions on the second row atoms) are used to calculate geometries and binding energies of 24 molecules containing second row atoms, d functions are found to be essential in the description of both properties for hypervalent molecules and to be important in the calculations of two-heavy-atom bond lengths even for molecules of normal valence. 

G1 theory does badly with ionic molecules, with triplet-state molecules such as O2 and S2 and with hypervalent molecules. Gaussian-2 (G2) theory eliminates some of these difficulties by making the following three changes ... 

Hypervalent molecules, like sulfoxides and sulfones, are too unstable. 

If only one set of polarization functions is used, an alternative notation in terms of is also widely used. The 6-31G=i basis is identical to 6-31G(d), and b-SlG ts is identical to 6-31G(d,p). A special note should be made for the 3-21G basis. The 3-21G basis is basiciy too small to support polarization functions (it becomes unbalanced). However, the 3-21G basis by itself performs poorly for hypervalent molecules, such as sulfoxides and sulfones. This can be substantially improved by adding a set of d-functions. The 3-2IG basis has only d-functions on second row elements (it is sometimes denoted 3-21G(=f=) to indicate this), and should not be considered a polarized basis. Rather, the addition of a set of d-functions should be considered an ad hoc repair of a known flaw. 

The foregoing discussion indicates that while there are difficulties in the way of a bonding role for 3d orbitals, for certain situations at least it is possible to conceive of ways in which these difficulties may be overcome. However, it is necessary to say that even for hypervalent molecules such as SF6 which seem to require the use of d orbitals, there are molecular orbital treatments not involving the use of d orbitals. In fact, as shown by Bent in an elegant exposition12, the MO model of SF6 involving the use of d orbitals is only one of several possibilities. The octahedral stereochemistry of SF6, traditionally explained in... 

Three-Membered Ring Molecules with a Hypervalent Atom... 

In addition to halogen bonded complexes or ionic salts, it is also possible for sulfur and selenium electron donors to form complexes in which the electron donor atom inserts into the X2 bond, giving a hypervalent donor atom with a T-shaped geometry. It has been recently reported [147] that for dibromine and selenium, this type of complex is favored over halogen bonded complexes. While no purely halogen bonded complex is reported for dibromine, there is one complex (IRABEI) in which one selenium atom of each of several selenanthrene molecules in the asymmetric unit does insert into a Br2 bond, but for one of the molecules, the other selenium atom forms a halogen bond with a Br2 molecule to form a simple adduct (A). 

It is interesting to note that many of the techniques developed in phosphorus chemistry are npw being routinely applied to hypervalent molecules of other elements. For instance, Martin et al. have studied the pseudorotational (Berry) mechanism for the inversion of 10-Si-5-siliconates (1) by 19F n.m.r. and demonstrated a linear correlation between AG for inversion at silicon and the a values of the variable ligand, Y The energy barriers for... 

Lewis recognized that certain molecules such a PCI5 and SF6 are exceptions to the octet rule because their Lewis structures indicate that the central atom has more than eight electrons in its valence shell 10 for the P atom in PCI5 and the S atom in SF4, and 12 for the S atom in SFg (Figure 1.17). Such molecules are called hypervalent because the valence of the central atom is greater than its principal valence. To write a Lewis structure for such molecules, the Lewis symbol for the hypervalent atom must be modified to show the correct number of unpaired electrons. For the molecules in Figure 1.17 we would need to write the Lewis symbols as follows ... 

Figure 1.17 Some examples of hypervalent molecules that have more than eight electrons in the valence shell of the central atom.

Exceptions to the Octet Rule Hypervalent and Hypovalent Molecules 21... 

The best Lewis-type representation of the bonding in OCF3 would therefore appear to be as in 4, even though the carbon atom does not obey the octet rule. This molecule can be considered to be a hypervalent molecule of carbon just like the hypervalent molecules of the period 3 elements, such as SFfi. We introduced the atom hypervalent in Chapter 2 and we discuss it in more detail in Chapter 9. But it is important to emphasize that the bonds are very polar. In short, OCF3 has one very polar CO double bond and three very polar CF single bonds. A serious limitation of Lewis structures is that they do not give any indication of the polarity of the bonds, and much of the discussion about the nature of the bonding in this molecule has resulted from a lack of appreciation of this limitation. 

Because they do not obey the octet rule, hypervalent molecules have often been thought to involve some type of bonding that is not found in period 2 molecules. Ideas concerning the nature of this bonding have developed along a somewhat tortuous path that it is interesting and instructive to follow. We will in the end conclude that the nature of the bonding in these molecules is not different in type from that in related period 2 molecules and that there is therefore little justification for the continued use of this concept. 

Lewis considered covalent and ionic bonds to be two extremes of the same general type of bond in which an electron pair is shared between two atoms contributing to the valence shell of both the bonded atoms. In other words, in writing his structures Lewis took no account of the polarity of bonds. As we will see much of the subsequent controversy concerning hypervalent molecules has arisen because of attempts to describe polar bonds in terms of Lewis structures. 

Not only molecules with LLPCN > 4, but all molecules of the elements in period 3 and beyond in their higher valence states, including most of their numerous oxides, oxoacids, and related molecules such as SO3 and (H0)2S04 should be regarded as hypervalent if AO bonds are described as double bonds (1). However, Lewis did not regard these molecules as exceptions to the octet rule because he wrote the Lewis structures of these molecules with single bonds and the appropriate formal charges (2). 

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