Appendix 1

Projection Operators

In Chapter 6 (Section 6.3) the limitations of a pictorial approach to generating MOs was touched on. A SALC is a linear combination of atomic orbitals:

image (eqn. A.l)

where N is a normalisation constant and ψi are the wavefunctions for individual AOs. In the qualitative approach to describing MOs adopted throughout this book the coefficients (ci)associated with each AO contribution are ignored (i.e. assumed to be equal). Although this does not affect significantly the pictorial description of the MO, it lacks a level of detail which can, at times, lead to problems. It has already been commented on that these coefficients ...

Get Group Theory for Chemists, 2nd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.