In: Chemistry
draw the pi molecular orbitals that are produced from the combination of the four p atomic orbitals in 1,3-butadiene. Label each of the molecular orbitals as bonding, anti-bonding, or non-bonding and add an appropriate number of electrons to the molecular orbital diagram
the four 2pz orbitals are all parallel to each other (and perpendicular to the plane of the sigma bonds), and thus there is ?-overlap not just between C1 and C2 and C3 and C4, but between C2 and C3 as well. The four atomic (2pz) orbitals have combined to form four ? molecular orbitals.
The lowest energy molecular orbital, ?1, has zero nodes, and is a bonding MO. Slightly higher in energy, but still lower than the isolated p orbitals, is the ?2 orbital. This orbital has one node between C2 and C3, but is still a bonding orbital due to the two constructive interactions between C1-C2 and C3-C4. The two higher-energy MO’s are denoted ?3* and ?4*, and are antibonding. Notice that ?3* has two nodes and one constructive interaction, while ?4* has three nodes and zero constructive interactions. The energy of both of these antibonding molecular orbitals is higher than that of the 2pz atomic orbitals of which they are composed.