5.02 | The MO-Diagram of Cyclopentadienide

Monday June 13th 2022 | This lecture is a continuation from the lecture of last week, where the MO diagram of ethylene was discussed. In this lecture we continued are discussion and expanded our understanding of olefins by looking at the MO-diagram of 1,3-butadiene. We reached the conclusion that based on symmetry arguments the Pz orbitals of olefins were independent of all the other P-orbitals (obvious). It enabled us to look at the four symmetry adapted linear combinations of the Pz-orbitals and establish their ordering based on their energy. We also found that the ordering is determined by the number of nodes they posses. In the final section of the lecture we expanded our understanding even further by including cyclopentadienide, which is a cyclic and aromatic olefin. It’s MO-diagram was discussed and it’s relevance towards metal-binding evaluated.

The link to the video can be found below: