Chemical Forums
Chemistry Forums for Students => Undergraduate General Chemistry Forum => Topic started by: Chaste on November 06, 2008, 06:47:56 AM
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is the point group of Na2O D-infinity-H or C2v? and why?
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Na2O should be a ionic compounds. Point group can be assigned to a molecule. In this case you should know the crystal structure of Na2O. But for H2O you can assign point group easily.
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I'm sorry. I didn't really get anything from your reply. I know water is C2v.
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Perhaps AWK was not perfectly clear. What he means is that Na2O is an ionic compound and as such doesn't have separate molecules. However, it does have crystallic ctructure. So, you can't talk about symmetry of the molecule (as it doesn't exist), but you can analyse symmetry of the crystal.
In the case of water separate molecules do exist, so you can assign them a point group.
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oh i see... sorry for the lack of background knowledge. However, i need to find the point group so as to draw the molecular orbital diagram with the symmetry labels for each MOs.
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so which point grp shd i assign na2o for its crystalline structure?
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Oh
But note - molecular diagram is for molecules, not ions
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can we just isolate the na2o out and determine its point grp?
cuz.. i need to plot the molecular diagram as a homework
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Crystal structure of Na2O - cubic system (oxygen red, sodium -blue)