Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 1 A2 a ii Solution 2026-10-20
Let exchange the complete labels of the two electrons. The spatial factors obey . The singlet state spin factor is antisymmetric, while each triplet state spin factor is symmetric. Thus in all four casesas required by the Pauli exclusion principle. In particular, the triplet state remains a triplet despite having opposite measured spin projections in each product term.
For a spin-independent Hamiltonian and the same fixed spatial atomic orbitals, direct evaluation giveswhere is the direct Coulomb integral and is the exchange integral for the helium pair. ThereforeThe antisymmetric spatial wavefunction vanishes when the two positions coincide and reduces their Coulomb repulsion. The lower energy of the maximum-spin member of this fixed electron configuration is the first of Hund's rules.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 1 A2 a i Solution 2026-10-20
The Pauli exclusion principle requires the complete electron wavefunction to change sign on exchange of any two electrons, including both position and spin labels. Let and be normalized, orthogonal spatial atomic orbitals, and let denote spin up and down.
The symmetric and antisymmetric spatial functions areThe singlet state isThe three triplet states share the antisymmetric spatial factor:Every factor and complete product is normalized. Here the subscripts are ; the spatial electron configuration is in each case.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 1 A2 b iii Solution 2026-10-20
Closed subshells have , so only the open or subshell determines each atomic term. Apply Hund's rules in order: maximize , maximize at that , then choose the lowest below half filling or the highest above half filling.
For carbon, the two electrons occupy different magnetic atomic orbitals with parallel spins, giving . Their largest allowed at that spin is , so , a term. The subshell is less than half full, giving . The ground level is .
For vanadium, three parallel-spin electrons give . The largest compatible with the Pauli exclusion principle is , hence , an term. The subshell is less than half full, so . The ground level is .
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 1 A2 c i Solution 2026-10-20
- The atomic nuclei are much heavier than electrons, so nuclear motion is slower. In the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, first hold the nuclear positions fixed and solve
- Approximate the complete wavefunction by and neglect the nuclear-derivative couplings involving and .
- Nuclear motion then occurs on one electronic potential energy surface:Here excludes the nuclear repulsion , which must be included once.
- The mass separation makes the discarded coupling terms small when electronic energy gaps are sufficiently large; near a degeneracy or avoided crossing, a single-surface description can fail.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 1 A4 c i 1 Solution 2026-10-20
Fill four spatial molecular orbitals with the eight electrons. For negative and , the occupied energies are , , and the pair at . ThereforeFor equal integrals, , this becomesAt equal bond lengths, the last two electrons occupy the frontier degeneracy at , so their distribution within that degenerate space does not change the bare Hückel method energy.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 1 A4 c ii Solution 2026-10-20
The uniform planar eight-electron ring has a partially filled frontier degeneracy. Bond-length alternation splits those levels, permitting the two frontier electrons to occupy the lowered orbital and opening a gap to the empty partner. This is the electronic mechanism for destabilizing the equal-bond planar geometry.
A controlled comparison keeps the mean resonance integral fixed. PutUsing part (i), the change from the uniform ring isThus a small alternation lowers the electronic energy, with a leading gain linear in . An ordinary elastic cost starts quadratically, so the equal-bond planar state is unstable in this model. The equilibrium distortion requires those geometric and sigma-bond costs as well.
The eight electrons constitute a cyclic count rather than the closed-shell case associated with aromaticity. The result concerns the imposed planar geometry; it does not establish the unconstrained three-dimensional equilibrium shape of cyclooctatetraene.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 2 A10 b iii Solution 2026-10-20
The extra electron is bound to an approximately singly charged donor through a dielectric-screened Coulomb attraction. In the isotropic hydrogenic donor state model, replace the vacuum electron mass by and the vacuum permittivity by :At low temperature, the donor is mainly in its state. Allowed electric-dipole transitions to states haveAssign the three printed lines to . Their independently inferred binding energies areThey are mutually close, giving . The hydrogenic impurity absorption series accumulates at the donor-ionization limit. Above about , absorption can place the electron in the conduction-band continuum, explaining the continuous spectrum.
Using the supplied and ,The corresponding effective radius isThese are the parameters inferred from the printed lines within the stipulated scalar model, rather than substituted tabulated material constants. Real impurity spectra can depart from a single hydrogenic ladder through anisotropy and short-distance impurity effects.[ref]
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 2 A10 b ii Solution 2026-10-20
There are three useful temperature regimes.
At low temperature, dopant freeze-out keeps most donor electrons bound. Warming ionizes donors and increases conductivity through the rising mobile-electron concentration. For an uncompensated dilute donor system, negligible holes and spin degeneracy two, charge neutrality with partial donor ionization givesDeep in freeze-out, , soThe activation scale is set by the shallow donor binding, rather than the whole band gap.
In the extrinsic regime, donors are largely ionized and is nearly constant. The temperature dependence of conductivity then mainly follows the electron mobility. Increasing phonon scattering can make conductivity fall as temperature rises, even though donors remain ionized; impurity scattering can give a different mobility trend at lower temperature.
At sufficiently high temperature, thermally generated electron–hole pairs overwhelm the dopant population. The intrinsic, gap-activated increase in conductivity returns. The boundaries depend on donor concentration, compensation and scattering, so no one exponential describes the entire doped-sample curve.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 2 A10 b i Solution 2026-10-20
Arsenic has five valence electrons, one more than silicon. As a substitutional donor impurity, it supplies a weakly bound extra electron which is largely thermally released into the conduction band at room temperature, leaving an ionized positive donor.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 2 A10 c Solution 2026-10-20
Gallium has three valence electrons, one fewer than silicon, and acts as an acceptor impurity. A neutral acceptor can be described as a negatively charged centre binding an electron hole. Thermal release of these holes gives a p-type semiconductor.
At low temperature, the bound hole can absorb far-IR photons in transitions between acceptor levels. The simplest scalar hydrogenic acceptor state model predictsso one expects a discrete bound-hole absorption series followed by a photoionization continuum. In that idealization, the first lines would be at , and , with threshold .
The hole effective mass is not supplied, so the electron mass cannot be reused to give numerical Ga line positions. In a real valence band, multiple hole bands, anisotropic masses and spin-orbit effects can split and complicate the series; acceptor spectra are generally less accurately described by one scalar hydrogenic ladder.[ref]
Optical Properties of Solids by Mildred S. Dresselhaus. Section 7.3, printed p. 79: departures from the hydrogenic model for degenerate valence bands and acceptors
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 2 A7 b Solution 2026-10-20
For monatomic species, there are no molecular rotational or vibrational factors. Assume excited electronic states are negligible, so the internal partition sums are the ground-state degeneracies. A free electron has two spin states, givingwith the analogous expression for the ion. Since losing one electron changes the atomic mass negligibly, . HenceThis is the ground-state form of the Saha ionization equation. Its assumptions include a dilute, nondegenerate ideal mixture, negligible interparticle interactions, thermal and chemical equilibrium, no additional ionization stages, and consistent treatment of internal degeneracies. Nuclear-spin factors may be omitted when they cancel between the atom and ion; they must not be counted on only one side.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2022 Paper 2 A7 d i Solution 2026-10-20
Let be the degree of ionization. Conservation of nuclei and charge neutrality, with no pre-existing electrons or other ions, giveSubstitution into the definition of givesThe physical root lies between zero and one:The second form avoids subtracting nearly equal terms at large . The limits are when and when . The dependence on initial number density matters: alone, without and the standard-state convention, does not specify the ionized fraction.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 A4 a iv Solution 2026-10-20
Each cyanide contributes charge , so the formal nickel oxidation state is and the metal has . The requested diagram retains only the five principally metal- molecular orbitals; the mainly ligand bonding molecular orbitals lie below them and are omitted.
In the square, points directly towards all four ligand donors and gives the highest, strongly antibonding molecular orbital, . The function also has an allowed interaction, but its in-plane overlap is smaller. Including the allowed nickel mixing gives a principally level with relatively weak antibonding character. The and metal functions have no ligand partner in the sigma bond donor basis and are nonbonding in this minimal model. The useful qualitative ordering is thereforeThe three nonbonding functions are shown together because the sigma-only model does not determine their finer splitting. Additional electrostatic and pi backbonding interactions can change the ordering of the lower levels; molecular symmetry alone does not fix these energy gaps.[ref]
Bonding in Molecules by John E. McGrady. 2022 lecture notes, square-planar sigma-only molecular-orbital discussion, printed pp. 60–61
In the tetrahedron, the ligand combinations interact with the metal functions, producing higher -derived antibonding molecular orbitals. The metal pair has no sigma donor partner and remains nonbonding:The diagram fills both arrangements with eight metal electrons; the square is shown in its fully paired state.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 A4 a v Solution 2026-10-20
For unpaired electrons, the spin-only magnetic moment iswhere is the Bohr magneton and the second expression uses .
For the square, a large separation of the highest level favours pairing in the lower four molecular orbitals: , , . If the cost of occupying were smaller than the relevant electron pairing energy, a high-spin complex with two unpaired electrons and could instead occur, giving .
For ideal tetrahedral , the occupation is . Hund's rules distribute four electrons over the three degenerate molecular orbitals as one pair and two single occupations. Thus and . Merely increasing the – splitting does not create a conventional paired tetrahedral alternative: four electrons must still occupy .
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 A5 a ii Solution 2026-10-20
Filling the three bonding molecular orbitals with two electrons each givesThree isolated ethene-like bonds, evaluated with the same Hückel method parameters, have . Thus the signed delocalization energy isEquivalently, the positive stabilization is .
Benzene has a planar cyclic conjugated system with six electrons, satisfying the count with . All three bonding molecular orbitals are filled and the antibonding levels are empty, giving the closed-shell stabilization associated with aromaticity. The conclusion uses the continuous cyclic overlap as well as the electron count.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 A5 a i Solution 2026-10-20
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 isEach 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.
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.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 A5 b iv Solution 2026-10-20
The six electrons give the Hückel method energyThe appropriate localized reference contains two C=N bonds and one C=C bond. Three C=C bonds would incorrectly replace the nitrogen one-centre parameters. For one isolated C=N pair, the dimensionless matrix iswhose eigenvalues are . Since , the occupied bonding molecular orbital has energy . Two doubly occupied C=N bonds and one doubly occupied C=C bond consequently giveTherefore the signed delocalization energy isThe positive stabilization is , smaller than the benzene value in the stated model but still stabilizing.
Pyrazine is aromatic: its planar cyclic conjugated system contains six electrons and has a filled set of three bonding molecular orbitals. Each ring nitrogen contributes one electron; its in-plane lone pair is outside this system. The heteroatoms change orbital energies and coefficients without interrupting cyclic conjugation or the count. Aromaticity does not require the stabilization to equal benzene's.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2025 Paper 1 A2 e Solution 2026-10-20
If two fermions occupied the same complete spin orbital , their antisymmetrized product would beThe zero vector cannot represent a normalized quantum state. This is the Pauli exclusion principle: at most one identical fermion occupies any complete one-particle state. Two electrons may occupy the same spatial orbital with opposite spins, because and are different spin orbitals.
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2025 Paper 2 A10 a ii Solution 2026-10-20
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2025 Paper 2 A10 b ii Solution 2026-10-20
A standard substitutional acceptor choice is Mg on a Ga site: a group-II atom replaces group III, leaving one fewer valence electron. Its size is sufficiently compatible with the cation sublattice to make substitution plausible. This identifies the intended acceptor chemistry; actual hole density also depends on activation, incomplete ionization and compensation. Size and valence rules alone do not guarantee a shallow, fully ionized acceptor.

