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An unpaired electron has a magnetic dipole moment, while an electron pair has no dipole moment because the two electrons have opposite spins so their magnetic dipole fields are in opposite directions and cancel. Thus an atom with unpaired electrons acts as a magnetic dipole and interacts with a magnetic field. Only elements with unpaired ...
A notable example of a radical is the hydroxyl radical (HO·), a molecule that has one unpaired electron on the oxygen atom. Two other examples are triplet oxygen and triplet carbene (꞉ CH 2) which have two unpaired electrons. Radicals may be generated in a number of ways, but typical methods involve redox reactions.
Electronic spin state at it simplest describes the number of unpaired electrons in a molecule. Most molecules including the proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids that make up the majority of life have no unpaired electrons even when charged. Such molecules are called singlet molecules, since their paired electrons have only one spin state.
Two electrons which occupy the same molecular orbital but have opposite spins. Electron pairs form chemical bonds or occur as lone pairs of valence electrons; it is also possible for electrons to occur individually as unpaired electrons. electron shell An orbital around the nucleus of an atom which contains a fixed number of electrons (usually ...
Creating dangling bonds with unpaired electrons can, for example, be achieved by cutting or putting large mechanical strain on a polymer. In this process, covalent bonds between carbon atoms are broken. One electron can end up on each of the carbon atoms that originally contributed to the bond, leading to two unpaired dangling bonds. [5]
Shows location of unpaired electrons, bonded atoms, and bond angles. The bond angle for water is 104.5°. Valence shell electron pair repulsion ( VSEPR ) theory ( / ˈ v ɛ s p ər , v ə ˈ s ɛ p ər / VESP -ər , [ 1 ] : 410 və- SEP -ər [ 2 ] ) is a model used in chemistry to predict the geometry of individual molecules from the number of ...
Free radicals are atoms or molecules containing unpaired electrons. [2] Electrons normally exist in pairs in specific orbitals in atoms or molecules. [17] Free radicals, which contain only a single electron in any orbital, are usually unstable toward losing or picking up an extra electron, so that all electrons in the atom or molecule will be ...
An unpaired electron can gain or lose angular momentum, which can change the value of its g-factor, causing it to differ from . This is especially significant for chemical systems with transition-metal ions. Systems with multiple unpaired electrons experience electron–electron interactions that give rise to "fine" structure.