Molecular orbital model coordination compounds

The structural strengths of the hybridization model were combined with the electronic strengths of the crystal-field model in a molecular-orbital model albeit with the loss of the simplicity of the earlier models. The essential aspects of this MO model will be discussed in Chapter 1. The key point here is that, if one wishes to understand the electronic structure of metal-coordination compounds, one need go beyond the Lewis model of two-center-two-electron bonds. It should be obvious, then, that this is also a requirement for organometallic complexes, metal clusters and extended solid-state systems containing metal atoms. 

The electronic configuration of titanium is [Ar] 3d24s2, which means that Ti(IV) compounds are d° species with free coordination sites 1-27,28). H-NMR and 13C-NMR data are known and have been occasionally discussed in terms of bond polarity 19), but such interpretations are obviously of limited value. The electronic structure of methyltitanium trichloride 17 and other reagents have been considered qualitatively 52) and quantitatively S3 56> using molecular orbital procedures. It is problematical to compare these calculations in a quantitative way with those that have been carried out for methyllithium 57> since different methods, basis sets and assumptions are involved, but the extreme polar nature of the C—Li bond does not appear to apply to the C—Ti analog. Several MO calculations of the w-interaction between ethylene and methyltitanium trichloride 17 (models for Ziegler-Natta polymerization) clearly emphasize the role of vacant coordination sites at titanium 58). 

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