Energized Electrons in Chemical Bonding

[boderam]

In chemistry I learned the bonding rules that I learned for various molecules never mentioned anything about the different energy levels in electrons. Now that I know electrons can have various energy levels from absorption of photons, I would like to know if this changes the behavior of molecules in bonding other than being able to emit photons of different energy. Thank you.

 

[Pete99]

I am not sure if I understand what you are asking for, but in principle yes, the molecule can change because of the absorption of a photon. If an electron is excited from a bonding orbital to an anti-bonding orbital, the molecule will relax to the new equilibrium conformation. In some cases it can even dissociate.