Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/2/b/i/solution
Past exam of the chemistry course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2025 2 b i Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
End-on overlap produces and molecular orbitals; side-on overlap produces and molecular orbitals. Matching signs of the facing atomic orbital lobes give constructive interference and a bonding molecular orbital. Opposite signs give destructive interference and an additional nodal plane between the atomic nuclei in the antibonding molecular orbital.
Take the internuclear direction as , and define both atomic functions as positive on their own right-hand side. Up to wavefunction normalization, the combinations areThe minus sign in the bonding combination follows from this common-axis quantum phase convention: the facing lobes of the two unmodified functions have opposite signs. It does not make that combination antibonding. Every molecular orbital also has a nodal plane containing the internuclear axis; the additional midpoint node distinguishes from .
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