Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/paper-1/a4/c/ii/solution
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2024 Paper 1 A4 c ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
The highest expected orbital degeneracy is five. Ideal buckminsterfullerene has Ih molecular point group symmetry. Its irreducible orbital representations include five-dimensional and representations; no single-valued orbital irrep has higher dimension.
This counts distinct spatial molecular orbitals. It does not multiply by electron spin, and it excludes accidental coincidences between unrelated irreps. In a real environment, symmetry lowering can split these degeneracies.[ref]
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