Molecules parity

We now consider planar molecules. The electronic wave function is expressed with respect to molecule-fixed axes, which we can take to be the abc principal axes of ineitia, namely, by taking the coordinates (x,y,z) in Figure 1 coincided with the principal axes a,b,c). In order to detemiine the parity of the molecule through inversions in SF, we first rotate all the electrons and nuclei by 180° about the c axis (which is peipendicular to the molecular plane) and then reflect all the electrons in the molecular ab plane. The net effect is the inversion of all particles in SF. The first step has no effect on both the electronic and nuclear molecule-fixed coordinates, and has no effect on the electronic wave functions. The second step is a reflection of electronic spatial coordinates in the molecular plane. Note that such a plane is a symmetry plane and the eigenvalues of the corresponding operator then detemiine the parity of the electronic wave function. 

We now consider planar molecules. The electronic wave function is expressed with respect to molecule-fixed axes, which we can take to be the abc principal axes of inertia, namely, by taking the coordinates (x,y,z) in Figure 1 coincided with the principal axes (a, b, c). In order to determine the parity of the molecule through inversions in SF, we first rotate all the displacement vectors... 

In the lowest optieally excited state of the molecule, we have one eleetron (ti ) and one hole (/i ), each with spin 1/2 which couple through the Coulomb interaetion and can either form a singlet 5 state (5 = 0), or a triplet T state (S = 1). Since the electric dipole matrix element for optical transitions — ep A)/(me) does not depend on spin, there is a strong spin seleetion rule (AS = 0) for optical electric dipole transitions. This strong spin seleetion rule arises from the very weak spin-orbit interaction for carbon. Thus, to turn on electric dipole transitions, appropriate odd-parity vibrational modes must be admixed with the initial and (or) final electronic states, so that the w eak absorption below 2.5 eV involves optical transitions between appropriate vibronic levels. These vibronic levels are energetically favored by virtue... 

Consider now spin-allowed transitions. The parity and angular momentum selection rules forbid pure d d transitions. Once again the rule is absolute. It is our description of the wavefunctions that is at fault. Suppose we enquire about a d-d transition in a tetrahedral complex. It might be supposed that the parity rule is inoperative here, since the tetrahedron has no centre of inversion to which the d orbitals and the light operator can be symmetry classified. But, this is not at all true for two reasons, one being empirical (which is more of an observation than a reason) and one theoretical. The empirical reason is that if the parity rule were irrelevant, the intensities of d-d bands in tetrahedral molecules could be fully allowed and as strong as those we observe in dyes, for example. In fact, the d-d bands in tetrahedral species are perhaps two or three orders of magnitude weaker than many fully allowed transitions. 

The theoretical reason is as follows. Although the placing of the ligands in a tetrahedral molecule does not define a centre of symmetry, the d orbitals are nevertheless centrosymmetric and the light operator is still of odd parity and so d-d transitions remain parity and orbitally Al = 1) forbidden. It is the nuclear coordinates that fail to define a centre of inversion, while we are considering a... 

Now look at octahedral complexes, or those with any other environment possessing a centre of symmetry e.g. square-planar). These present a further problem. The process of violating the parity rule is no longer available, for orbitals of different parity do not mix under a Hamiltonian for a centrosymmetric molecule. Here the nuclear arrangement requires the labelling of d functions as g and of p functions as m in centrosymmetric complexes, d orbitals do not mix with p orbitals. And yet d-d transitions are observed in octahedral chromophores. We must turn to another mechanism. Actually this mechanism is operative for all chromophores, whether centrosymmetric or not. As we shall see, however, it is less effective than that described above and so wasn t mentioned there. For centrosymmetric systems it s the only game in town. 

Crassous, J., Chardonnet, C., Saue, T. and Sdiwerdtfeger, P. (2005) Recent e q)erimental and theoretical developments towards the observation of parity violation (PV) effects in molecules by spectroscopy. Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, 3, 2218—2224. 

Similarly, the first-order expansion of the p° and a of Eq. (5.1) is, respectively, responsible for IR absorption and Raman scattering. According to the parity, one can easily understand that selection mles for hyper-Raman scattering are rather similar to those for IR [17,18]. Moreover, some of the silent modes, which are IR- and Raman-inactive vibrational modes, can be allowed in hyper-Raman scattering because of the nonlinearity. Incidentally, hyper-Raman-active modes and Raman-active modes are mutually exclusive in centrosymmetric molecules. Similar to Raman spectroscopy, hyper-Raman spectroscopy is feasible by visible excitation. Therefore, hyper-Raman spectroscopy can, in principle, be used as an alternative for IR spectroscopy, especially in IR-opaque media such as an aqueous solution [103]. Moreover, its spatial resolution, caused by the diffraction limit, is expected to be much better than IR microscopy. 

According to the argument presented above, any molecule must be described by wavefunctions that are antisymmetric with respect to the exchange of any two identical particles. For a homonuclear diatomic molecule, for example, thepossibility of permutation of the two identical nuclei must be considered. Although both the translational and vibrational wavefunctions are symmetric under such a permutation, die parity of the rotational wavefunction depends on the value of 7, the rotational quantum number. It can be shown that the wave-function is symmetric if J is even and antisymmetric if J is odd The overall... 

The influence of the weak interaction on chemical reactions can be calculated since it favours left-handedness, it has an effect on the energy content of molecules and thus on their stability. In the case of the amino acids, the L-form would be more stable than the corresponding D-form to a very small extent. Theoretical calculations (using ab initio methods), in particular by Mason and Tranter (1983), indicated that the energy difference between two enantiomers due to the parity violation is close to 10 14J/mol (Buschmann et al., 2000). More recent evidence suggests that the... 

Excited states formed by light absorption are governed by (dipole) selection rules. Two selection rules derive from parity and spin considerations. Atoms and molecules with a center of symmetry must have wavefunctions that are either symmetric (g) or antisymmetric (u). Since the dipole moment operator is of odd parity, allowed transitions must relate states of different parity thus, u—g is allowed, but not u—u or g—g. Similarly, allowed transitions must connect states of the same multiplicity—that is, singlet—singlet, triplet-triplet, and so on. The parity selection rule is strictly obeyed for atoms and molecules of high symmetry. In molecules of low symmetry, it tends to break down gradually however,... 

Calculations for C6o in the LDA approximation [62, 60] yield a narrow band ( 0.4--0.6 eV bandwidth) solid, with a HOMO-LUMO-derived direct band gap of 1.5 eV at the X point of the fee Brillouin zone. The narrow energy bands and the molecular nature of the electronic structure of fullerenes arc indicative of a highly correlated electron system. Since the HOMO and LUMO levels both have the same odd parity, electric dipole transitions between these levels are symmetry forbidden in the free Ceo molecule. In the crystalline solid, transitions between the direct bandgap states at the T and X points in the cubic Brillouin zone arc also forbidden, but are allowed at the lower symmetry points in the Brillouin zone. The allowed electric dipole... 

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