Molecular Orbital Theory and Chemical Bonding in Solids

Molecular Orbital Theory and Chemical Bonding in Solids... 

MOLECULAR ORBITAL THEORY AND CHEMICAL BONDING IN SOLIDS... 

The theory of band structures belongs to the world of solid state physicists, who like to think in terms of collective properties, band dispersions, Brillouin zones and reciprocal space [9,10]. This is not the favorite language of a chemist, who prefers to think in terms of molecular orbitals and bonds. Hoffmann gives an excellent and highly instructive comparison of the physical and chemical pictures of bonding [6], In this appendix we try to use as much as possible the chemical language of molecular orbitals. Before talking about metals we recall a few concepts from molecular orbital theory. 

Chapter 10, in relation to classical bond orders and bond energies. In the meantime, Chapter 9 deals with the molecular orbital separation, conjugated systems, non-localizable tt molecular orbitals and resonance. In Chapter 11 a brief extension of molecular orbital theory is made to include three categories of systems fullerenes, transition metal complexes, solid aggregates (and band theory). Finally, Chapter 12 mainly illustrates the direct relations between orbitals and chemical reactivity and between orbitals and spectroscopy, with emphasis on electronic transitions and on spectral parameters in NMR spectroscopy. 

It is traditional for quantmn theory of molecular systems (molecular quantum chemistry) to describe the properties of a many-atom system on the grounds of interatomic interactions applying the hnear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) approximation in the electronic-structure calculations. The basis of the theory of the electronic structure of solids is the periodicity of the crystalline potential and Bloch-type one-electron states, in the majority of cases approximated by a linear combination of plane waves (LCPW). In a quantmn chemistry of solids the LCAO approach is extended to periodic systems and modified in such a way that the periodicity of the potential is correctly taken into account, but the language traditional for chemistry is used when the interatomic interaction is analyzed to explain the properties of the crystalhne sohds. At first, the quantum chemistry of solids was considered simply as the energy-band theory [2] or the theory of the chemical bond in tetrahedral semiconductors [3]. From the beginning of the 1970s the use of powerful computer codes has become a common practice in molecular quantum chemistry to predict many properties of molecules in the first-principles LCAO calculations. In the condensed-matter studies the accurate description of the system at an atomic scale was much less advanced [4]. 

The initial attempts to relate this language to quantum mechanics were understandably done through the orbital model that underlies the valence bond and molecular orbital methods employed to obtain the approximate solutions to Schrodinger s equation. The one-electron model, as embodied in the molecular orbital method or its extension to solids, is the method for classifying and predicting the electronic structure of any system (save a superconductor whose properties are a result of collective behavior). The orbital classification of electronic states, in conjunction with perturbation theory, is a powerful tool in relating a system s chemical reactivity and its response to external fields to its electronic structure and to the symmetry of this abstract structure. The conceptual basis of chemistry is, however, a consequence of structure that is evident in real space. 

Sometimes the estimation of the electronic structures of polymer chains necessitates the inclusion of long-range interactions and intermolecular interactions in the chemical shift calculations. To do so, it is necessary to use a sophisticated theoretical method which can take account of the characteristics of polymers. In this context, the tight-binding molecular orbital(TB MO) theory from the field of solid state physics is used, in the same sense in which it is employed in the LCAO approximation in molecular quantum chemistry to describe the electronic structures of infinite polymers with a periodical structure -11,36). In a polymer chain with linearly bonded monomer units, the potential energy if an electron varies periodically along the chain. In such a system, the wave function vj/ (k) for electrons at a position r can be obtained from Bloch s theorem as follows(36,37) ... 

---