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The Chemical Educator

ISSN: 1430-4171 (electronic version)

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Abstract Volume 8 Issue 3 (2003) pp 177-181

Bonding in an Antibonding Orbital

Henry E. Montgomery, Jr.^†,* and L.L. Tankersley^‡

Centre College, 600 West Walnut Street, Danville, KY 40422-1394^†, mntgmry@centre.edu and Department of Physics, United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD 21402^‡
Received January 30, 2003. Accepted May 8, 2003

Published online: 23 May 2003

Abstract. The antibonding 2ps_ustate of the hydrogen molecular ion is modeled by adding an atomic polarizability correction to the molecular orbital treatment. With this addition, the 2ps_u state is shown to be bonding at internuclear separations greater than 10.55 a₀. The WKB phase integral method is introduced and used to estimate the number of vibrational and rotational bound states and their energies.

Key Words:  In the Classroom; physical chemistry; quantum mechanics

(*) Corresponding author. (E-mail: mntgmry@centre.edu)

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Issue date: June 1, 2003

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