|
William F. Coleman
Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA 02481
The majority
of Introductory Chemistry texts
provide students with an adequate
introduction to the visual aspects
of the molecular orbital model
for homonuclear diatomic molecules.
The treatment of heteronuclear
diatomic and polyatomic molecules
is less uniform. Heteronuclear
diatomics, when mentioned, are
invariably treated as being derived
from homonuclear diatomics. While
the atomic orbital energy level
differences in heteronuclear diatomics
is sometimes pictured, the consequences
of those differences for the resultant
molecular orbitals are rarely
discussed.
The discussion
of polyatomic molecular orbitals
in these texts is limited to showing
that parallel p-orbitals produce
delocalized pi molecular orbitals.
The molecules typically mentioned
in this context are benzene, nitrate
ion and carbonate ion. However,
It is rarely pointed out that the
six p-orbitals in benzene would
form 6 pi molecular orbitals, and
that only one of these orbitals
would look like the picture in
the text.These interactive modules
are designed to clarify this subject.
 |
View
|
|
|
Review
|
|
|
Requires
|
HyperChem
Web Viewer plug-in, available
at the HyperChem web
site, and Internet
Explorer 6.0 or higher running
on a PC, or on a Mac running
Virtual PC. |
Keywords
|
|
History
|
Submitted:
August 2003
|
Tables of Contents: By
subject | By
most recent first
|
