How are bonding and antibonding orbitals different?

↳Redirected from "How many antibonding orbitals are there in Benzene?"
1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Jul 25, 2015

Clearly, bonding orbitals promote bonding. More specifically, they promote higher electron densities, meaning high orbital occupation probabilities. Antibonding orbitals promote electronic nodes or nodal planes, meaning low orbital occupation probabilities.

For example:

#1s ("bonding") + 1s ("antibonding") = sigma_(1s)^"*"#, which has a node in between the lobes.

#1s ("bonding") + 1s ("bonding") = sigma_(1s)#, which has greater electron density overall.

http://chemwiki.ucdavis.edu/

Related questions
See all questions in Bonding and Antibonding Orbitals
Impact of this question
687 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License