Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

Molecular orbital theory

Valence bond theory gave us a qualitative picture of chemical bonding.
Useful for predicting shapes of molecules, bond strengths, etc.
It fails to describe some bonding situations accurately because it ignores the wave nature of the
electrons.
Molecular orbital (MO) theory has the potential to be more quantitative.
Usually we settle for simplified models here too. These simple models do not give very accurate
orbital and bond energies, but they do explain concepts such as resonance (e.g., in the ferrocene
molecule) that are hard to represent otherwise. We can get accurate energies from MO theory by
computational "number crunching."
While MO theory is more "correct" than VB theory and can be very accurate in predicting the
properties of molecules, it is also rather complicated even for fairly simple molecules. For
example, you should have no trouble drawing the VB pictures for CO, NH3, and benzene, but we
will find that these are increasingly challenging with MO theory.
Constructing the molecular orbitals for a molecule:
We use atomic orbitals (AO) as a basis for constructing MO's.
LCAO-MO = linear combination of atomic orbitals
Physicists call this the "tight binding approximation."
The molecular orbitals, also called wavefunctions (), are obtained by adding and subtracting
atomic orbitals (). The 's are multiplied by scalar coefficients (c) to give normalized linear
combinations.
For example, to make MO's from two AO's 1 and 1, we write:
= c11 c22, or
1 = c11 + c22 and 2 = c11 - c22
Bonding

e.g.,

nodes

Antibonding 2
atomic orbital 1
e.g., H 1s
1(x,y,z)

atomic orbital 2
e.g., Cl 3pz
2(x,y,z)
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Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

Nodes. The wavefunctions and are probability amplitudes. They have lobes with (+) or (-)
signs, which we indicate by shading or color. Wherever the wavefunction changes sign we have
a node. As you can see in the picture above, nodes in MOs result from destructive interference
of (+) and (-) wavefunctions. Generally, the more nodes, the higher the energy of the orbital.
In this example we have drawn a simplified picture of the Cl 3pz orbital and the resulting MOs,
leaving out the radial node. Recall that 2p orbitals have no radial nodes, 3p orbitals have one, 4p
have two, etc. The MOs we make by combining the AOs have these nodes too.
2p

3p

Normalization. We square the wave functions to get probabilities, which are always positve or
zero. So if an electron is in orbital 1, the probability of finding it at point xyz is the square of
1(x,y,z). The total probability does not change when we combine AOs to make MOs, so for the
simple case of combining 1 and 2 to make 1 and 2,
12 + 22 = 12 + 22
Overlap integral and c values. The spatial overlap between two atomic orbitals 1 and 1 is
described by the overlap integral S,
S=

" ! ! d# where the integration is over all space (d = dxdydz).

1

From the normalization criterion we get:

!1 =

1
1
(
)("1 + " 2 ) (bonding orbital)
2 1+ S

and
!2 =

1
1
(
)(#1 " # 2 ) (antibonding orbital)
2 1" S

In the case where S=0, this simplifies to c1 = c2 =

1
.
2

Energies of bonding and antibonding MOs:

The energies of the bonding and antibonding molecular orbitals (1, 2) are lower and higher,
respectively, than the energies of the atomic basis orbitals 1 and 2.

Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

For the simple case where 1 and 2 have the same energy (e.g., the two H 1s orbitals that
combine to make the MOs of the H2 molecule) we have the following picture:
2

E=

!" #
1+ S

Energy
E=

E=

!+"
1# S

The energy of an electron in one of the atomic orbitals is , the Coulomb integral.

!=

# " H" d$ = # " H" d$

1

, where H is the Hamiltonian operator. Essentially, represents

the ionization energy of an electron in atomic orbital 1 or 2.

The energy difference between an electron in the AOs and the MOs is determined by the
exchange integral ,

!=

# " H" d$
1

Note that the bonding orbital is stabilized by an energy

!
and the antibonding orbital is
1+ S

!
. That is, the antibonding orbital goes up in energy more than the bonding
1" S
orbital goes down. This means that H2 (1220) is energetically more stable than two H atoms,
but He2 with four electrons (1222) is unstable relative to two He atoms.
destabilized by

Heteronuclear case (e.g., HCl):

2

Energy

1
(!" ) 2 + 4 # 2
2

E = 1

!1 + !2
2

1 (H 1s)

2 Cl 3pz
1

E = 2

Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

The bigger the electronegativity difference between atomic orbitals (the larger is) the more
2 character the bonding orbital has, i.e., the more it looks like the Cl 3pz orbital in this case.
This is consistent with the idea that H-Cl has a polar single bond.
The antibonding orbital (empty) has more H-character.
Extreme case - ionic bonding (NaF): very large
2
1 (Na 3s)
Energy

2 F 2pz

In this case, there is not much mixing between the AOs because their energies are far apart. The
two bonding electrons are localized on the F atom , so we can write the molecule as Na+F-. Note
that if we were to excite an electron from 1 to 2 using light, the resulting electronic
configuration would be (1121) and we would have Na0F0. This is called a charge transfer
transition.
Summary of MOs so far:

Add and subtract AO wavefunctions to make MOs. Two AOs two MOs. More
generally, the total number of MOs equals the number of AO basis orbitals.

We showed the simplest case (only two basis orbitals). More accurate calculations use a
much larger basis set (more AOs) and solve for the matrix of cs that gives the lowest
total energy, using mathematically friendly models of the potential energy function that is
part of the Hamiltonian operator H.

More nodes higher energy MO

Bond order = ( # of bonding electrons - # of antibonding electrons)

Bond polarity emerges in the MO picture as orbital character.

Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

AOs that are far apart in energy do not interact much when they combine to make MOs.

Orbital symmetry
The MO picture gets complicated when many AOs are involved. We can simplify the problem
enormously by noting (without proof here) that orbitals of different symmetry with respect to the
molecule do not interact.
AOs must have the same nodal symmetry (as defined by the molecular symmetry operations), or
their overlap is zero.
For example, in the HCl molecule, the molecular symmetry axis is z
node

H 1s
Symmetric w/r
to rotation about z

Bonding axis z

Cl 3py
Antisymmetric w/r
to rotation about z

Because these two orbitals have different symmetries, the Cl 3py orbital is nonbonding and
doesnt interact with the H 1s. The same is true of the Cl 3px orbital. The px and py orbitals have
symmetry (nodal plane containing the bonding axis) and are labeled nb in the MO picture.
The H 1s and Cl 3pz orbitals both have symmetry and make the bonding and antibonding
combinations shown on p.1.
Inorganic compounds use s, p, and d orbitals (and more rarely f orbitals) to make bonding and
antibonding combinations. These combinations result in , , and bonds (and antibonds).
You are already familiar with and bonding in organic compounds. In
inorganic chemistry, bonds can be made from p- and/or d-orbitals.
bonds are more rare and occur by face-to-face overlap of d-orbitals, as in
the ion Re2Cl82-. The fact that the Cl atoms are eclipsed in this anion is
evidence of bonding.
Because p-p bonding involves sideways overlap of p-orbitals, it is most
commonly observed with second-row elements (C, N, O). -bonded compounds of heavier
elements are rare because the larger cores of the atoms prevent good -overlap. For this reason,
compounds containing C=C double bonds are very common, but those with Si=Si bonds are rare.
bonds are generally quite weak compared to and bonds. Compounds with metal-metal
bonds occur in the middle of the transition series

Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

The , , and bonding geometries are sketched below:

Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

Diatomic molecules
Valence bond theory fails for a number of the second row diatomics, most famously for O2,
where it predicts a diamagnetic, doubly bonded molecule with four lone pairs. O2 does have a
double bond, but it has two unpaired electrons in the ground state, a property that can be
explained by the MO picture. We can construct the MO energy level diagrams for these
molecules as follows:
Li2, Be2, B2, C2, N2

O2, F2, Ne2

We get the simpler picture on the right when the 2s and 2p AOs are well separated in energy, as
they are for O, F, and Ne. The picture on the left results from mixing of the 2s* and 2p MOs,
which are close in energy for Li2, Be2, B2, C2, and N2. The effect of this mixing is to push the
2s* down in energy and the 2p up, to the point where the p orbitals are below the 2p.
Orbital filling
MOs are filled from the bottom according to the Aufbau principle and Hunds rule, as we
learned for atomic orbitals.
Question: what is the quantum mechanical basis of Hunds rule?
(hint: it has something to do with the Pauli exclusion principle)
For O2 (12 valence electrons), we get this MO energy diagram:

Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

This energy ordering of MOs correctly predicts two unpaired electrons in the * orbital and a net
bond order of two (8 bonding electrons and 4 antibonding electrons).
Other interesting predictions of the MO theory for second-row diatomics are that the C2 molecule
has a bond order of 2 and that the B2 molecule has two unpaired electrons (both verified
experimentally).
We can also predict (using the O2, F2, Ne2 diagram above) that NO has a bond order of 2.5, and
CO has a bond order of 3.
The symbols "g" and "u" in the orbital labels, which we only include in the case of
centrosymmetric molecules, refer to their symmetry with respect to inversion. Gerade (g)
orbitals are symmetric, meaning that inversion through the center leaves the orbital unchanged.
Ungerade (u) means that the sign of the orbital is reversed by the inversion operation. Because g
and u orbitals have different symmetries, they have zero overlap with each other. As we will see
below, factoring orbitals according to g and u symmetry simplifies the task of constructing
molecular orbitals in more complicated molecules.
The orbital shapes shown above were computed using a one-electron model of the molecule, as
we did for hydrogen-like AOs to get the shapes of s, p, and d-orbitals. To get accurate MO
energies and diagrams for multi-electron molecules, we must include the fact that electrons are
correlated, i.e. that they avoid each other in molecules because of their negative charge. This
problem cannot be solved analytically, and is solved approximately in numerical calculations by
using density functional theory (DFT).
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Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

p-bonding must involve a second-row element!

We encounter -bonding from the sideways overlap of p-orbitals in the MO diagrams of secondrow diatomics (B2O2). It is important to remember that -bonds are weaker than bonds
made from the same AOs, and are especially weak if they involve elements beyond the second
row.
Example:
H
H

H
C=C

H
H

Ethylene: stable molecule

Doesnt polymerize without a catalyst

H
Si=Si

Silylene: never isolated, spontaneously polymerizes

Calculations indicate 117 kJ/mol stability in gas phase relative to
singly-bonded (triplet) H2Si-SiH2

Large Ne core of Si atoms inhibits sideways overlap of 3p orbitals weak -bond

Other examples: P4 vs. N2
..
P
:P

P:

:NN:

P
..
P cannot make -bonds with itself, so it forms a tetrahedral molecule with substantial ring strain.
This allotrope of P undergoes spontaneous combustion in air.
N can make -bonds, so N2 has a very strong triple bond and is a relatively inert diatomic gas
(CH3)2SiO vs. (CH3)2CO
[ -Si-O-]n

H3C
C=O
H3C

RTV silicone polymer (4 single bonds to Si) vs. acetone (C=O double bond)
Also compare: SiO2 (mp ~1600 oC) vs. CO2 (sublimes at -78 oC)
S8 (solid, ring structure) vs. O2 (gas, double bond)
2nd row elements can form reasonably strong -bonds with 3rd row elements, e.g., in sulfurnitrogen compounds such as S2N2, S3N3-, etc.

Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

Three-center bonding
Many (but not all) of the problems we will solve with MO theory derive from the MO diagram of
the H2 molecule, which is a case of two-center bonding. The rest we will solve by analogy to the
H3+ ion, which introduces the concept of three-center bonding.
We can draw the H3+ ion (and also H3 and H3-) in either a linear or triangular geometry.
Walsh correlation diagram for H3+:

*g
e

nodes
u

degenerate
(2 nodes)
g
(0 nodes)
Linear
Triangular
A few important points about this diagram:

For the linear form of the ion, the highest and lowest MOs are symmetric with respect to
the inversion center in the molecule. The term symbol g (from German gerade) means
that an orbital has this kind of symmetry, whereas u means antisymmetric with respect
to inversion. Note that the central 1s orbital has g symmetry, so by symmetry it has zero
overlap with the u combination of the two 1s orbitals on the ends. This makes the u
orbital a nonbonding orbital.

In the triangular form of the molecule, the orbitals that derive from u and *g become
degenerate (i.e., they have identically the same energy by symmetry). The term symbol
e means doubly degenerate. We will see later that t means triply degenerate. Note
that we drop the g and u for the triangular orbitals because a triangle does not have
an inversion center.

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Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

The triangular form is most stable because the two electrons in H3+ have lower energy in
the lowest orbital. Bending the molecule creates a third bonding interaction between the
1s orbitals on the ends.
MO diagram for XH2 (X = Be, B, C):

This is more complicated than H3 because the X atom has both s and p orbitals. However, we
can symmetry factor the orbitals and solve the problem by analogy to the H2 molecule:

Some key points about this MO diagram:

In the linear form of the molecule, which has inversion symmetry, the 2s and 2p orbitals of the X
atom factor into three symmetry classes:
2s = g
2pz = u
2px, 2py = u
Similarly, we can see that the two H 1s orbitals make two linear combinations, one with g
symmetry and one with u symmetry. They look like the bonding and antibonding MOs of the
H2 molecule (which is why we say we use that problem to solve this one).

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Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

The u orbitals must be non-bonding because there is no combination of the H 1s orbitals that has
u symmetry.
In the MO diagram, we make bonding and antibonding combinations of the gs and the us.
For BeH2, we then populate the lowest two orbitals with the four valence electrons and discover
(not surprisingly) that the molecule has two bonds and can be written H-Be-H. The correlation
diagram shows that a bent form of the molecule should be less stable.
An interesting story about this MO diagram is that it is difficult to predict a priori whether CH2
should be linear or bent. In 1970, Charles Bender and Henry Schaefer, using quantum chemical
calculations, predicted that the ground state should be a bent triplet with an H-C-H angle of 135o.
The best experiments at the time suggested that methylene was a linear singlet, and the theorists
argued that the experimental result was wrong. Later experiments proved them right!
A theory is something nobody believes, except the person who made it. An experiment is
something everybody believes, except the person who made it. Einstein
MO diagram for NH3
We can now attempt the MO diagram for NH3, building on the result we obtained with
triangular H3+.

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Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

Notes on the MO diagram for ammonia:

Viewed end-on, a p-orbital or an spx hybrid orbital looks just like an s-orbital. Hence we can use
the solutions we developed with s-orbitals (for H3+) to set up the bonding and antibonding
combinations of nitrogen sp3 orbitals with the H 1s orbitals.
We now construct the sp3 hybrid orbitals of the nitrogen atom and orient them so that one is up
and the other three form the triangular base of the tetrahedron. The latter three, by analogy to the
H3+ ion, transform as one totally symmetric orbital (a1) and an e-symmetry pair. The hybrid
orbital at the top of the tetrahedron also has a1 symmetry.
The three hydrogen 1s orbitals also make one a1 and one e combination. We make bonding and
antibonding combinations with the nitrogen orbitals of the same symmetry. The remaining a1
orbital on N is pushed up in energy above the level of the AO because it interacts with the lower
energy a1 bonding orbital. In the molecule this orbital is approximately non-bonding.
The result in the 8-electron NH3 molecule is three N-H bonds and one lone pair localized on N,
the same as the valence bond picture.
P4 molecule and P42+ ion:
By analogy to NH3 we can construct the MO picture for one vertex of the P4 tetrahedron, and
then multiply the result by 4 to get the bonding picture for the molecule. An important
difference is that there is relatively little s-p hybridization in P4, so the lone pair orbitals have
more s-character and are lower in energy than the bonding orbitals, which are primarily p.
P4: 20 valence electrons
6 * orbitals (empty)
3px, py, pz

x 4 = 12 orbitals
6 orbitals (12 e = 6 bonds)
Large energy gap
Not much s-p mixing

3s

..
P
:P

x 4 = 4 nonbonding orbitals (8 e = 4 lone pairs)

P:
P
..

Take away 2 electrons to make P42+

Highest occupied MO is a bonding orbital break one bond, 5 bonds left
..
..
P
P
Square form relieves ring strain
2 electrons
+
:P
P:
(60o 90o)
2+
:P
P: aromatic
(4n + 2 rule)
P
P
.. +
..

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Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

Homology of and orbitals in MO diagrams

The ozone molecule (and related 18e molecules that contain three non-H atoms, such as allene)
is an example of 3-center 4-electron -bonding. Our MO treatment of ozone is entirely
analogous to the 4-electron H3- ion. We map that solution onto this one as follows:

The nonbonding -orbital has a node at the central O atom. This means that the non-bonding
electron pair in the -system is shared by the two terminal O atoms, i.e., that the formal charge is
shared by those atoms. This is consistent with the octet resonance structure of ozone.
An analogous (and seemingly more complicated) case of 3-center 4-electron bonding is I3-. Each
I atom has 4 valence orbitals (5s, 5px, 5py, 5pz), making a total of 12 frontier orbitals, and the I3has 22 electrons.
We can simplify the problem by recalling two periodic trends:

The s-p orbital splitting is large, relative to the bond energy, after the second row of the
periodic table. Thus, the 5s orbital is low in energy and too contracted to make bonds
with its neighbors.
-overlap of 5p orbitals is very weak, so the 5px and 5py orbitals will also be nonbonding.
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Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

This leaves only the three 5pz orbitals to make bonding/nonbonding/antibonding combinations.
Again, the problem is entirely analogous to ozone or H3-.

Counting orbitals we obtain 9 lone pairs from the nonbonding 5s, 5px, and 5py orbitals, as well as
one bond and one lone pair from the 5pz orbital combinations above. The total of 10 nonbonding
pairs and one bond accounts for the 22 electrons in the ion. The non-bonding 5pz pair is localized
on the terminal I atoms, giving each a -1/2 formal charge. This MO description is entirely
consistent with the octet no-bond resonance picture of I3- that we developed before.

Chains and rings of -conjugated systems

H
H

H
C=C

H2

Ethylene: The system is analogous to -bonding in H2

*u

*g

u
Ethylene

Viewed from the top or bottom, the ethylene -orbitals look like the H2 orbitals. Thus we can
map solutions from chains and rings of H atoms onto chains and rings of -orbitals (as we did for
the three-orbital case of O3).

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Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

Chains and rings of four H atoms or -orbitals (H4 or butadiene):

*u

*g

u
g

End H atoms

Center H atoms
g
Linear H4
Cyclic H4

A few notes about this MO diagram:

In the linear form of the molecule, the combination of AOs makes a ladder of evenly
spaced energy levels that alternate g u g u . Each successive orbital has one
more node. This is a general rule for linear chains of or orbitals with even numbers
of atoms.

In the cyclic form of the molecule, there is one non-degenerate orbital at the bottom, one
at the top, and a ladder of doubly degenerate orbitals in between. This is also a general
rule for cyclic molecules with even numbers of atoms. This is the origin of the 4n+2 rule
for aromatics.

H4 has four valence electrons, and by analogy butadiene has four -electrons. These
electrons fill the lowest two MOs in the linear form of the molecule, corresponding to
two conjugated -bonds in butadiene (H2C=CH-CH=CH2).

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Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

In the cyclic form of the butadiene molecule, the degenerate orbitals are singly occupied. The
molecule can break the degeneracy (and lower its energy) by distorting to a puckered rectangle.
This is a general rule for anti-aromatic cyclic molecules (4n rule). Thus cyclobutadiene should
be anti-aromatic and have two single and two double bonds that are not delocalized by resonance.

Cyclobutadiene is actually a very unstable molecule because it polymerizes to relieve ring strain.
Sterically hindered derivatives of the molecule do have the puckered rectangular structure
predicted by MO theory.

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Chemistry 310 - Lecture Notes

MO theory

Benzene -orbitals:
How do we get from a 4-atom to 6-atom chain?

u
g

1 2 3 4 5 6
------

------

6e

4n + 2 rule
It should now be evident that we can keep adding atomic orbitals to make chains and rings of 8,
10, 12... atoms. In each case, the g and u orbitals form a ladder of MOs. At the bottom rung of
the ladder of an N-atom chain, there are no nodes in the MO, and we add one node for every
rung until we get to the top, where there are N-1 nodes. Another way of saying this is that the
wavelength of an electron in orbital x, counting from the bottom (1,2,3...x,...N), is 2Na/x, where
a is the distance between atoms. We will find later in the course that we can learn a great deal
about the electronic properties of metals and semiconductors from this model, using the infinite
chain of atoms as a model for the crystal.

18