What are the shapes, including the locations of the nuclei, of pi and pi* orbitals.
1 Answer
Jun 8, 2015
A π orbital looks like two blobs above and below a plane, and that plane is a node — a region in space where there is no probability of finding an electron.
A π* orbital looks like a three-dimensional four-leaf clover. It has the same nodal plane as a π orbital, but there is a second nodal plane mid-way between the two nuclei and perpendicular to the internuclear axis.
The diagram below is a pretty good representation of π and π# orbitals. You can see the locations of the nuclei on the bond axis.
Many diagrams show the orbital lobes as elongated tear drops, as shown below.
But the lobes are really fat blobs, as shown in this probability diagram that was plotted from the quantum mechanical wave functions.
