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Antibonding orbitals are often labelled with an asterisk (*) on molecular orbital diagrams. In homonuclear diatomic molecules, σ* (sigma star) antibonding orbitals have no nodal planes passing through the two nuclei, like sigma bonds, and π* (pi star) orbitals have one nodal plane passing through the two nuclei, like pi bonds.
These orbitals and typically given the notation σ (sigma bonding), π (pi bonding), n (occupied nonbonding orbital, "lone pair"), p (unoccupied nonbonding orbital, "empty p orbital"; the symbol n* for unoccupied nonbonding orbital is seldom used), π* (pi antibonding), and σ* (sigma antibonding). (Woodward and Hoffmann use ω for nonbonding ...
For homonuclear diatomic molecules, bonding π molecular orbitals have only the one nodal plane passing through the bonded atoms, and no nodal planes between the bonded atoms. The corresponding antibonding, or π* ("pi-star") molecular orbital, is defined by the presence of an additional nodal plane between these two bonded atoms.
The orbital is not symmetric around the molecular axis and is therefore a pi orbital. The antibonding pi orbital (also asymmetrical) has four lobes pointing away from the nuclei. Both p y and p x orbitals form a pair of pi orbitals equal in energy and can have higher or lower energies than that of the sigma orbital.
Phosphines accept electron density from metal p or d orbitals into combinations of P–C σ* antibonding orbitals that have π symmetry. [9] When phosphines bond to electron-rich metal atoms, backbonding would be expected to lengthen P–C bonds as P–C σ* orbitals become populated by electrons.
Common bonding orbitals are sigma (σ) orbitals which are symmetric about the bond axis and pi (π) orbitals with a nodal plane along the bond axis. Less common are delta (δ) orbitals and phi (φ) orbitals with two and three nodal planes respectively along the bond axis. Antibonding orbitals are signified by the addition of an asterisk.
Here the sum extends over π molecular orbitals only, and n i is the number of electrons occupying orbital i with coefficients c ri and c si on atoms r and s respectively. Assuming a bond order contribution of 1 from the sigma component this gives a total bond order (σ + π) of 5/3 = 1.67 for benzene, rather than the commonly cited bond order ...
Molecular orbitals are said to be degenerate if they have the same energy. For example, in the homonuclear diatomic molecules of the first ten elements, the molecular orbitals derived from the p x and the p y atomic orbitals result in two degenerate bonding orbitals (of low energy) and two degenerate antibonding orbitals (of high energy). [13]