Orbital Energies and Total Electronic Energy

Recall that the minimum requirement for a many-electron wave function is that it be written as a suitably antisymmetrized sum of products of one-electron wave functions, that is, as a Slater determinant of MOs [see equation (A.68)] In Chapter 2 and Appendix A, we find that the condition that this be the best possible wave function of this form is that the MOs be eigenfunctions of a one-electron operator, the Fock operator [recall equation (A.42)], from which one can choose the appropriate number of the lowest energy. The Fock operator in restricted form, F( 1) [RHF, the UHF form was given in equation (A.41)], is given by 

Recall that the minimum requirement written as a suitably antisymmetrized that is, as a Slater determinant of MOs A, we find that the condition that this that the MOs be eigenfunctions of a equation (A.42)], from which one can ergy. The Fock operator in restricted equation (A.41)], is given by 

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INTERPRETATION OF SOLUTIONS OF HF EQUATIONS Orbital Energies and Total Electronic Energy... 

Once you have calculated an ab initio or a semi-empirical wave function via a single point calculation, geometry optimization, molecular dynamics or vibrations, you can plot the electrostatic potential surrounding the molecule, the total electronic density, the spin density, one or more molecular orbitals /i, and the electron densities of individual orbitals You can examine orbital energies and select orbitals for plotting from an orbital energy level diagram. 

Fig. 4. Correlation of structural data with electronically excited states on NiO(lOO). Lower panel (left) coordination of a Ni ion in the bulk, (middle) coordination of a Ni ion in the clean (100) surface as well as (right) in the case of adsorbed NO. Upper panel orbital diagram and total energies from cluster ealculations [40, 46].

If one uses a Slater detemiinant to evaluate the total electronic energy and maintains the orbital nomialization, then the orbitals can be obtained from the following Hartree-Fock equations ... 

VV e now wish to establish the general functional form of possible wavefunctions for the two electrons in this pseudo helium atom. We will do so by considering first the spatial part of the u a efunction. We will show how to derive functional forms for the wavefunction in which the i change of electrons is independent of the electron labels and does not affect the electron density. The simplest approach is to assume that each wavefunction for the helium atom is the product of the individual one-electron solutions. As we have just seen, this implies that the total energy is equal to the sum of the one-electron orbital energies, which is not correct as ii ignores electron-electron repulsion. Nevertheless, it is a useful illustrative model. The wavefunction of the lowest energy state then has each of the two electrons in a Is orbital ... 

The total it electron energy is the sum of occupied orbital energies multiplied by two if. as is usually the ease, the orbital is doubly occupied. The charge densities and free valency indices were treated in separate sections above. The bond order output should be read as a lower triangular serni matrix. The bond order semi matrix for the butadiene output is shown in Fig. 7-7. 

Semiempirical programs often use the half-electron approximation for radical calculations. The half-electron method is a mathematical technique for treating a singly occupied orbital in an RHF calculation. This results in consistent total energy at the expense of having an approximate wave function and orbital energies. Since a single-determinant calculation is used, there is no spin contamination. 

In addition to total energy and gradient, HyperChem can use quantum mechanical methods to calculate several other properties. The properties include the dipole moment, total electron density, total spin density, electrostatic potential, heats of formation, orbital energy levels, vibrational normal modes and frequencies, infrared spectrum intensities, and ultraviolet-visible spectrum frequencies and intensities. The HyperChem log file includes energy, gradient, and dipole values, while HIN files store atomic charge values. 

For a quantum mechanical calculation, the single point calculation leads to a wave function for the molecular system and considerably more information than just the energy and gradient are available. In principle, any expectation value might be computed. You can get plots of the individual orbitals, the total (or spin) electron density and the electrostatic field around the molecule. You can see the orbital energies in the status line when you plot an orbital. Finally, the log file contains additional information including the dipole moment of the molecule. The level of detail may be controlled by the PrintLevel entry in the chem.ini file. 

The fact that features in the total electron density are closely related to the shapes of the HOMO and LUMO provides a much better rationale of why FMO theory works as well as it does, than does the perturbation derivation. It should be noted, however, that improvements in the wave function do not necessarily lead to a better performance of the FMO method. Indeed the use of MOs from semi-empirical methods usually works better than data from ab initio wave functions. Furthermore it should be kept in mind that only the HOMO orbital converges to a specific shape and energy as the basis set is... 

The orbitals in an atom are organized into different layers, or electron shells, of successively larger size and energy. Different shells contain different numbers and kinds of orbitals, and each orbital within a shell can be occupied by two electrons. The first shell contains only a single s orbital, denoted Is, and thus holds only 2 electrons. The second shell contains one 2s orbital and three 2p orbitals and thus holds a total of 8 electrons. The third shell contains a 3s orbital, three 3p orbitals, and five 3d orbitals, for a total capacity of 18 electrons. These orbital groupings and their energy levels are shown in Figure 1.4. 

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