Square planar structure valence bond description

The crystal structure of 864(118207)2 90, 91) has shown 864 to be square planar with an 8e-8e bond distance of 2.283(4) A, significantly less than that of 2.34(2) A found in the 8eg molecule (92), indicating some degree of multiple bonding. 8uch a result is consistent with a valence bond description of the molecule involving four structures of type VII. Alternatively the structure can be understood in terms of molecule orbital theory. The circle in structure VIII denotes a closed-shell (aromatic ) six-w-electron system. Of the four tt molecular orbitals,... 

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