BENT BONDS AND THE ELECTRONIC SPECTRUM OF $P_{4}$
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Date
1964
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Ohio State University
Abstract
The reasonable assumption of a $3p^{2}$ configuration for the P atoms in the tetrahedral $P_{4}$ molecule leads to a situation in which the bonding a.o.'s do not point along the internuclear axes. The existence of such bent bonds has been challenged by some who claim spd hybridization removes the strain by turning the a.o.'s onto the lines of centers, while others claim the promotion energies are too high to allow this. In an attempt to learn more about the bonding in this molecule, we have determined the electronic spectrum of $P_{4}$ in the vacuum UV region and calculated the spectrum in the SCF-CI approximation assuming that the a.o.'s are pure 3p and the bonds are bent. The over-all agreement is good and suggests that the bonds are indeed bent. The implication that the strain energy is therefore quite small (zero?) appears to be explainable on the basis of a simple SCF argument.
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$\dag$ Permanent address: Spectroscopy Laboratory, Department of Physics, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, 60616.
Author Institution: Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., Murray Hill
Author Institution: Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., Murray Hill