Does the MO energy diagram of cyclooctatetraene
(Figure 16-8) ap...

Question

Does the MO energy diagram of cyclooctatetraene (Figure 16-8) appear to be a particularly stable or unstable configuration? Explain.

Accepted Answer

Hey everyone and welcome back in today's video. We are going to solve the following problem shown below is the molecular orbital energy diagram of a psycho Octa tetra in derivative. Does the molecular orbital energy diagram correspond to a stable or unstable configuration provide a brief explanation for your answer. And when we look at this diagram, we realize that this is the frost diagram which allows us to draw these molecular energy molecular orbital energy diagrams. So how to read it first of all, if we notice there is the central line which separates our bonding and anti bonding orbital's so below the line, we have our bonding orbital's above that line. We have our anti bonding orbital's and in case that line passes through other orbital's than these orbital's are called non bonding orbital's. So what can we really conclude? Knowing that we can conclude three things. Number one, since we have three bonding orbital's total, right? There's 123. They are completely filled. So we can say bonding orbital's completely failed and that's good for us. Right now, number two, anti bonding orbital czar completely empty. We have three orbital's and none of them have electrons. We can say Auntie bonding orbital's MT and number three non bonding orbital's partially filled. Right? Each of the two non bonding orbital's they contain one electron each so partially filled because bonding orbital's are completely filled and anti bonding orbital czar empty. They do not have any effect on stability. So we are only going to concentrate on number three non bonding orbital's and because electrons are not paired, we call that an unpaid electron implies radical character. And as we know, radicals are not stable because they are reactive and they want to pair their electron. Right? Nonetheless, because we don't just have one unparalled election, we have two of them. This implies even less stability. So we have a so called die radical character and that is sufficient for us to discuss the stability of the cyclo Octa tetra in derivative because it has two unpaid electrons in its non bonding orbital's, the derivative corresponds to die radical character. And since radicals are not stable, we can conclude that the molecular orbital energy diagram corresponds to an unstable configuration because the two electrons are located in two different non bonding orbital's including indicating a deradicalization character. So that's why they given derivative corresponds to an unstable configuration. That will be our answer. And we can conclude that the correct answer choices see once again, because there are these two unpaid electrons which give cyclo Oxitec torreon derivative, a di radical character. And radicals are not stable. Therefore the derivative itself based on this diagram is expected to be unstable. Thank you for watching

Does the MO energy diagram of cyclooctatetraene (Figure 16-8) appear to be a particularly stable or unstable configuration? Explain.

Watch next