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Topic: Interaction between orbitals.  (Read 8716 times)

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Offline Corribus

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Re: Interaction between orbitals.
« Reply #15 on: October 08, 2014, 01:54:52 PM »
Ok, let's review:

The 3 pz orbitals on the 3 chlorines belong to symmetry groups:

A"2 and E"

The s orbital on the central P atom belongs to symmetry group A'1.
The px, py, and pz orbitals on the central P atom belong to E" for px,py and A"2 for pz.
The dx2-y2 and dxy orbitals on the central P atom transform together as E'. The dz2 orbital transforms as A'1. And the dxz and dyz orbitals transform together as E".

So, look for matches.

A"2 of the 3 chlorine pz orbitals matches with the pz orbital on the central P atom.

E" of the 3 chlorine pz orbitals matches with the (dxz,dyz) transform. So your answer is the pz and dxy,dyz atomic orbitals on the central P atom.

Now, if you think about the fact that in order to interact, orbitals have to be aligned correctly, this makes sense. Obviously the pz orbital on the central atom should be able to act with the pz orbitals on the chlorines. The doubly degenerate representations are a little harder to picture, but again if you consider the way that the dxz and dyz orbitals on the central atom are aligned, you should be able to visualize how they might interact with the pz orbitals on the chlorines. Compare that to, for example, the dxy orbital, which is in the molecular plane - there's no way it can realistically interact with the 3 pz chlorine orbitals.
What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were like a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent?  - Richard P. Feynman

Offline shafaifer

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Re: Interaction between orbitals.
« Reply #16 on: October 08, 2014, 03:23:47 PM »
Thank you for great help, Corribus.

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