Skip to main content

Unanswered Questions

1,261 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
27 votes
0 answers
3k views

How to calculate transition dipole moment from two known wavefunctions

I'm interested in calculating the transition dipole moment (TDM) from the information from two wavefunctions of different states. This is somewhat similar to calculating the molecular dipole moment ...
24 votes
0 answers
1k views

What is d-orbital collapse?

When I was perusing the works of Schwarz on atomic structure, I came across the unfamiliar term of d-orbital collapse. He describes it as a variation in energetic sequence from group 1 to 3 elements ...
15 votes
0 answers
356 views

Rotation around CC bond in 1,2-dioxetane: transition states and local minimum structures

TLDR: What: Potential energy surface associated with rotation around CC bond in the ring-opened version of 1,2-dioxetane. How: State average(4)-CASSCF(12,10)/VTZP constrained geometry optimizations ...
12 votes
0 answers
309 views

Accuracy of quantum chemistry calculations on iodine neglecting relativistic effects

Triiodothyronine is a molecule with three iodine atoms. If we attempted to calculate its properties with ab initio methods like Hartree-Fock or more complicated ab initio methods which included ...
11 votes
0 answers
1k views

Understanding two-electron integrals in Gaussian 09

I was comparing the two-electron integrals (electron repulsion integrals, ERI) printed by various well-established packages (Gaussian, GAMESS, Molpro etc.) and observed that Gaussian is the oddball in ...
11 votes
1 answer
303 views

What is this golden looking substance?

I am currently messing around with gallium compromising aluminum. I am using a titalium lock which is just a brand of aluminum padlock and I put a gallium-indium euctic alloy on the surface of it. It’...
10 votes
0 answers
141 views

Using symmetry and group theory arguments to explain iron(II) in a tetrahedral crystal field

I am trying to figure out how to explain $1s \rightarrow 3d$ spectroscopic transitions for $\ce{Fe^{2+}}$ in $T_\mathrm{d}$ symmetry. These transitions make up the pre-edge region in K edge X-ray ...
10 votes
0 answers
20k views

Why does the reaction of sodium nitrate, aluminium, and sodium hydroxide yield ammonia?

From Russian test problem 4301: $$\ce{3NaNO3 + 8Al + 5NaOH + 18H2O -> 8Na[Al(OH)4] + 3NH3(g)}$$ How does ammonia evolve here? Is it that we get hydrogen gas evolving in the reaction between Al and ...
10 votes
0 answers
640 views

Identifying alkyl ligands as π-donors or π-acceptors in transition metal complexes

Is there a systematic way to identify an alkyl ligand as a π-acceptor or π-donor in a transition metal complex? Although various sources indicate that the weak field ligands are typically π-donors and ...
9 votes
0 answers
157 views

Why are vapours of xenon hexafluoride coloured?

According to Wikipedia, [...] It is a colorless solid that readily sublimes into intensely yellow vapors. It is clear from the above statement that $\ce{XeF6}$ is colourless in solid form. But why ...
9 votes
0 answers
196 views

Is there a reliable chemical theory that predicts pKa based on structure?

Obviously, there are general stability arguments that can be made to estimate relative pKas, such as evaluating the stability of the conjugate base of an acid, or thinking about how polarized the bond ...
9 votes
0 answers
429 views

Vanishing integral rule for two-electron integrals

I understand the vanishing integral rule for a one-electron integral to be: $$\langle i | \hat{O} | j \rangle = 0 \hspace{1cm} \mathrm{if} \hspace{0.2cm} \Gamma_O \neq \Gamma_i \otimes \Gamma_j$$ ...
9 votes
0 answers
513 views

multielectron spin-orbit coupling and energy level

For multi-electron atoms for which the Hamiltonian (including the spin-orbit coupling) reads $$H=\sum_i T_i-Z\sum_i V_i+\sum_i V_i^{\text{s.o.}}+\sum_{i>j}V_{ij}$$ The $T_i$ are the kinetic ...
9 votes
1 answer
10k views

Order of Basicity of Nitrogen Trihalides

I was asked to arrange nitrogen tri-halides in order of increasing basicity. On looking up the answer online, it turned out to be the following: $\ce{NF3}$ < $\ce{NCl3}$ < $\ce{NBr3}$ < $\ce{...
8 votes
0 answers
265 views

Why is octaoxygen diamagnetic?

I tried considering that according to LCAO-MO theory $\ce{O2}$ is paramagnetic, which is confirmed by experimental evidence. Since octaoxygen has the crystal structure in figure, I thought there is a ...

15 30 50 per page
1
2 3 4 5
85