Orbitals

With Applications in Atomic Spectra

This book describes atomic orbitals at a level suitable for undergraduates in chemistry. The mathematical treatment is brought to life by many illustrations rendered from mathematical functions (no artists' impressions), including three-dimensional plots of angular functions, showing orbital phase, and contour plots of the wavefunctions that result from orbital hybridisation.

Orbitals extends the key fundamental quantum properties to many-electron atoms, linear combinations of atomic orbitals, simple molecules, delocalised systems and atomic spectroscopy. By focusing on simple model systems, use of analogies and avoiding group theory the results are obtained from initial postulates without the need for sophisticated mathematics.

Contents:

• Fundamentals
• Orbitals in the Hydrogen Atom
• Multi-Electron Atoms
• Wavefunctions in Multi-Electron Atoms
• Orbitals in Molecules
• Atomic Spectroscopy
• Worked Solutions to Exercises

Readership: Undergraduate chemistry students.
Key Features:

• The book incorporates the results of recent research in the relative energies of subshells in many-electron atoms
• The chemistry undergraduate is neither blinded with mathematics that is too advanced to follow, nor presented with results without thorough justification or derivation. Instead a mathematical approach is taken that is comprehensible, and supported by worked solutions to problems
• The g orbitals are examined in detail as an extension of treatment of the s, p, d and f shells, and as recognition of how the new heavy elements in the periodic table are approaching a putative g block