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H 2 1sσ* antibonding molecular orbital. In theoretical chemistry, an antibonding orbital is a type of molecular orbital that weakens the chemical bond between two atoms and helps to raise the energy of the molecule relative to the separated atoms. Such an orbital has one or more nodes in the bonding region between the nuclei.
Electron wavefunctions for the 1s orbital of a lone hydrogen atom (left and right) and the corresponding bonding (bottom) and antibonding (top) molecular orbitals of the H 2 molecule. The real part of the wavefunction is the blue curve, and the imaginary part is the red curve.
The p-orbitals oriented in the z-direction (p z) can overlap end-on forming a bonding (symmetrical) σ orbital and an antibonding σ* molecular orbital. In contrast to the sigma 1s MO's, the σ 2p has some non-bonding electron density at either side of the nuclei and the σ* 2p has some electron density between the nuclei.
The corresponding antibonding, or σ* orbital, is defined by the presence of one nodal plane between the two bonded atoms. Sigma bonds are the strongest type of covalent bonds due to the direct overlap of orbitals, and the electrons in these bonds are sometimes referred to as sigma electrons. [3] The symbol σ is the Greek letter sigma.
In molecular orbital theory, bond order is defined as half the difference between the number of bonding electrons and the number of antibonding electrons as per the equation below. [5] [6] This often but not always yields similar results for bonds near their equilibrium lengths, but it does not work for stretched bonds. [7]
In chemistry, pi backbonding or π backbonding is a π-bonding interaction between a filled (or half filled) orbital of a transition metal atom and a vacant orbital on an adjacent ion or molecule. [1] [2] In this type of interaction, electrons from the metal are used to bond to the ligand, which dissipates excess negative charge and stabilizes ...
Molecular orbital theory was seen as a competitor to valence bond theory in the 1930s, before it was realized that the two methods are closely related and that when extended they become equivalent. Molecular orbital theory is used to interpret ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV–VIS). Changes to the electronic structure of molecules can be ...
When the two atomic orbitals come together, they first fill in the bonding orbital with two electrons, but unlike hydrogen, it has two electrons left, which must then go to the antibonding orbital. The instability of the antibonding orbital cancels out the stabilizing effect provided by the bonding orbital; therefore, dihelium's bond order is 0 ...