- antibonding orbital
- molecular orbital located outside of the region between two nuclei; electrons in an antibonding orbital destabilize the molecule
- bond order
- number of pairs of electrons between two atoms; it can be found by the number of bonds in a Lewis structure or by the difference between the number of bonding and antibonding electrons divided by two
- bonding orbital
- molecular orbital located between two nuclei; electrons in a bonding orbital stabilize a molecule
- degenerate orbitals
- orbitals that have the same energy
- diamagnetism
- phenomenon in which a material is not magnetic itself but is repelled by a magnetic field; it occurs when there are only paired electrons present
- homonuclear diatomic molecule
- molecule consisting of two identical atoms
- hybrid orbital
- orbital created by combining atomic orbitals on a central atom
- hybridization
- model that describes the changes in the atomic orbitals of an atom when it forms a covalent compound
- linear combination of atomic orbitals
- technique for combining atomic orbitals to create molecular orbitals
- molecular orbital
- region of space in which an electron has a high probability of being found in a molecule
- molecular orbital diagram
- visual representation of the relative energy levels of molecular orbitals
- molecular orbital theory
- model that describes the behavior of electrons delocalized throughout a molecule in terms of the combination of atomic wave functions
- node
- plane separating different lobes of orbitals, where the probability of finding an electron is zero
- overlap
- coexistence of orbitals from two different atoms sharing the same region of space, leading to the formation of a covalent bond
- paramagnetism
- phenomenon in which a material is not magnetic itself but is attracted to a magnetic field; it occurs when there are unpaired electrons present
- pi bond (π bond)
- covalent bond formed by side-by-side overlap of atomic orbitals; the electron density is found on opposite sides of the internuclear axis
- s-p mixing
- change that causes σp orbitals to be less stable than πp orbitals due to the mixing of s and p-based molecular orbitals of similar energies.
- sigma bond (σ bond)
- covalent bond formed by overlap of atomic orbitals along the internuclear axis
- sp hybrid orbital
- one of a set of two orbitals with a linear arrangement that results from combining one s and one p orbital
- sp2 hybrid orbital
- one of a set of three orbitals with a trigonal planar arrangement that results from combining one s and two p orbitals
- sp3 hybrid orbital
- one of a set of four orbitals with a tetrahedral arrangement that results from combining one s and three p orbitals
- sp3d hybrid orbital
- one of a set of five orbitals with a trigonal bipyramidal arrangement that results from combining one s, three p, and one d orbital
- sp3d2 hybrid orbital
- one of a set of six orbitals with an octahedral arrangement that results from combining one s, three p, and two d orbitals
- valence bond theory
- description of bonding that involves atomic orbitals overlapping to form σ or π bonds, within which pairs of electrons are shared
- π bonding orbital
- molecular orbital formed by side-by-side overlap of atomic orbitals, in which the electron density is found on opposite sides of the internuclear axis
- π* bonding orbital
- antibonding molecular orbital formed by out of phase side-by-side overlap of atomic orbitals, in which the electron density is found on both sides of the internuclear axis, and there is a node between the nuclei
- σ bonding orbital
- molecular orbital in which the electron density is found along the axis of the bond
- σ* bonding orbital
- antibonding molecular orbital formed by out-of-phase overlap of atomic orbital along the axis of the bond, generating a node between the nuclei