Linear LCAO

LCAO method A method of calculation of molecular orbitals based upon the concept that the molecular orbital can be expressed as a linear combination of the atomic orbitals. 

In the prooedures most oonnnonly applied to nonlinear moleoules, the ( ) are expanded in a basis aooording to the linear oombinations of AOs to fonn moleoular orbitals (LCAO-MO) [36] prooedure ... 

HMO theory is named after its developer, Erich Huckel (1896-1980), who published his theory in 1930 [9] partly in order to explain the unusual stability of benzene and other aromatic compounds. Given that digital computers had not yet been invented and that all Hiickel s calculations had to be done by hand, HMO theory necessarily includes many approximations. The first is that only the jr-molecular orbitals of the molecule are considered. This implies that the entire molecular structure is planar (because then a plane of symmetry separates the r-orbitals, which are antisymmetric with respect to this plane, from all others). It also means that only one atomic orbital must be considered for each atom in the r-system (the p-orbital that is antisymmetric with respect to the plane of the molecule) and none at all for atoms (such as hydrogen) that are not involved in the r-system. Huckel then used the technique known as linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) to build these atomic orbitals up into molecular orbitals. This is illustrated in Figure 7-18 for ethylene. 

Note that the sums of the squares of the coefficients in a given MO must equal 1 (e.g., 0.3717 + 0.6015 + 0.3717 + 0.6015 = 1.0 for Pi) because each of the AOs represents a probability distribution of finding the electron at a given point in space. The total probability of finding an electron in all space for an MO must be unity, exactly as for its constituent AOs. We now can see that the LCAO approximation is only one of many possibilities to describe the electron density (= probability) for MOs. We do not have to express the electron density as a linear combination of the electron densities of AOs centered at the atoms. We could also... 

ITyperChem uses the Linear Combination of Atomic Orhilals-Molecular Orbital (LCAO-MO) approximation for all of itsah initio sem i-empirical melh ods. If rg, represen is a molecular orbital and... 

To this pom t, th e basic approxmi alien is th at th e total wave I lnic-tion IS a single Slater determinant and the resultant expression of the molecular orbitals is a linear combination of atomic orbital basis functions (MO-LCAO). In other words, an ah miiio calculation can be initiated once a basis for the LCAO is chosen. Mathematically, any set of functions can be a basis for an ah mitio calculation. However, there are two main things to be considered m the choice of the basis. First one desires to use the most efficient and accurate functions possible, so that the expansion (equation (49) on page 222). will require the few esl possible term s for an accurate representation of a molecular orbital. The second one is the speed of tW O-electron integral calculation. 

In our treatment of molecular systems we first show how to determine the energy for a given iva efunction, and then demonstrate how to calculate the wavefunction for a specific nuclear geometry. In the most popular kind of quantum mechanical calculations performed on molecules each molecular spin orbital is expressed as a linear combination of atomic orhilals (the LCAO approach ). Thus each molecular orbital can be written as a summation of the following form ... 

Linear Combination of Atomic Orbitals (LCAO) in Hartree-Fock Theory... 

When aos are eombined to form mos, eore, bonding, nonbonding, antibonding, and Rydberg moleeular orbitals ean result. The mos (j) are usually expressed in terms of the eonstituent atomie orbitals Xa iii the linear-eombination-of-atomie-orbital-moleeular-orbital (LCAO-MO) manner ... 

Just as in the non-linear polyatomie-moleeule ease, the atomie orbitals whieh eonstitute a given moleeular orbital must have the same symmetry as that of the moleeular orbital. This means that a,7i, and 5 moleeular orbitals are formed, via LCAO-MO, from m=0, m= 1, and m= 2 atomie orbitals, respeetively. In the diatomie N2 moleeule, for example, the eore orbitals are of a symmetry as are the moleeular orbitals formed from the 2s and 2pz atomie orbitals (or their hybrids) on eaeh Nitrogen atom. The moleeular orbitals formed from the atomie 2p i =(2px- i 2py) and the 2p 1 =(2px + i 2py) orbitals are of n symmetry and have m = -1 and +1. 

In the simplest pieture of ehemieal bonding, the valenee moleeular orbitals (jti are eonstrueted as linear eombinations of valenee atomie orbitals X i aeeording to the LCAO-MO formula ... 

In the most eommonly employed proeedures used to solve the HF equations for non-linear moleeules, the d >i are expanded in a basis of funetions X i aeeording to the LCAO-MO proeedure ... 

LCAO (linear combination of atomic orbitals) refers to construction of a wave function from atomic basis functions LDA (local density approximation) approximation used in some of the more approximate DFT methods... 

The molecular orbital approach to chemical bonding rests on the notion that as elec trons m atoms occupy atomic orbitals electrons m molecules occupy molecular orbitals Just as our first task m writing the electron configuration of an atom is to identify the atomic orbitals that are available to it so too must we first describe the orbitals avail able to a molecule In the molecular orbital method this is done by representing molec ular orbitals as combinations of atomic orbitals the linear combination of atomic orbitals molecular orbital (LCAO MO) method... 

You can interpret results, including dipole moments and atomic charges, using the simple concepts and familiar vocabulary of the Linear Combination of Atomic Orbitals (LCAO)-molecular orbital (MO) theory. 

The quantum mechanics methods in HyperChem differ in how they approximate the Schrodinger equation and how they compute potential energy. The ab initio method expands molecular orbitals into a linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) and does not introduce any further approximation. 

Configuration Interaction (or electron correlation) adds to the single determinant of the Hartree-Fock wave function a linear combination of determinants that play the role of atomic orbitals. This is similar to constructing a molecular orbital as a linear combination of atomic orbitals. Like the LCAO approximation. Cl calculations determine the weighting of each determinant to produce the lowest energy ground state (see SCFTechnique on page 43). 

To compute molecular orbitals, you must give them mathematical form. The usual approach is to expand them as a linear combination of known functions, such as the atomic orbitals of the constituent atoms of the molecular system. If the atomic orbitals, (Is, 2s, 2px, 2py, 2pz, etc.) are denoted as then this equation describes the molecular orbitals as linear combination of atomic orbitals (MO-LCAO) ... 

The basis of constructing the MOs is the linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) method. This takes account of the fact that, in the region close to a nucleus, the MO wave function resembles an AO wave function for the atom of which the nucleus is a part. It is reasonable, then, to express an MO wave function 1/ as a linear combination of AO wave functions Xi on both nuclei ... 

The coefficients indicate the contribution of each atomic orbital to the molecular orbital. This method of representing the molecular orbital wave function in terms of combinations of atomic orbital wave functions is known as the linear combination of atomic orbitals approximation (LCAO). The combination of atomic orbitals chosen is called the basis set. 

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