Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/paper-1/a5/a/i/solution

Use the printed numbering: site 1 is at the top on , sites 2 and 3 are on the right, site 4 is at the bottom, and sites 5 and 6 are on the left; is perpendicular to the ring. Let be consistently phased, orthonormal atomic orbitals at those sites.
In the Hückel method, and , including the 6–1 bond. Set , with the usual . The cyclic nearest-neighbour matrix has eigenvalues . One real, normalized orthonormal eigenbasis is
Each row means . The three lowest molecular orbitals hold the six electrons. Any real orthogonal mixing within either degenerate pair is an equally valid choice of molecular orbitals; the coefficient vectors specify exactly which sketches are used here.
Figure 1.
Original benzene pi-orbital energy diagram and six real orbital phase sketches in the printed atom numbering
. Details.
The coloured circles show the signs and relative magnitudes of the lobes above the molecular plane. The lobes below it have the opposite signs; colours are quantum phases, not electric charges.

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