Question

molecular orbital electronic configuration of H+3​

Answer 1

Answer:

Hydrogen atom's valence orbitals, before bonding, include every orbital, and all are the same energy for a specific

n

. At that point, there is only one electron.

HAVING MORE THAN ONE ELECTRON SPLITS ENERGY LEVELS

When introducing more electrons into the system, i.e. with another hydrogen wanting to bond, the repulsion splits the energy levels of the AOs of hydrogen.

They start out where each

n

gives subshells of equal energy, i.e.

2

s

and

2

p

are the same energy and

3

s

,

3

p

, and

3

d

are the same energy, but the

3

l

orbitals are higher in energy than the

2

l

orbitals.

MOLECULAR ORBITAL THEORY

The basic tenant of Molecular Orbital Theory (MO Theory) is that the number of MOs formed by a linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) is equal to the number of AOs used.

The energy splitting caused by electron/electron repulsion generates two MOs due to the one

1

s

orbital per hydrogen that is bonding. They are called the bonding

σ

1

s

and antibonding

σ

*

1

s

MOs.

The

2

s

,

2

p

,

3

s

, and other AOs split to a very high relative energy that is out of range of the MO diagram we will be drawing, so we can focus on the

1

s

AOs and its MOs.