Article
Article
Molecular orbital theory
Article By:
Burdett, Jeremy K. Department of Chemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.430600
A quantum-mechanical model concerned with the description of the discrete energy levels associated with electrons in molecules. One useful way to generate such levels is to assume that the molecular orbital wave function (ψf) may be written as a simple weighted sum of the constituent atomic orbitals (χi) [Eq. (1)];
(1)The content above is only an excerpt.
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