Understanding Heterolytic Bond Cleavage
Abstract
When considering the fragmentation of a single bond, the attractive singlet and repulsive triplet potential energy curves of the prototype H2 - 2 H dissociation often come to mind. For species in which homolytic bond cleavage is energetically favored, such comparisons are reasonable. For other species where heterolytic cleavage gives lower-energy products, the H2 analogy is inappropriate. This paper offers a qualitative theoretical treatment of the singlet and triplet potential energy curves that arise when a single bond formed by an electron pair is cleaved either homolytically or heterolytically. This analysis is shown to provide insight into several problems involving transition metal systems: transition metal carbonyls, metal ion-ligand complexes, and transition metal dimers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 31, 1992
- Accession Number
- ADA252336
Entities
People
- Jack Simons
- Peter Armentrout
Organizations
- University of Utah