What do these molecular term symbols mean?

Thread starter AxiomOfChoice
Start date Oct 22, 2011
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The discussion centers on understanding molecular term symbols, specifically for the ground electronic states of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), chlorine dioxide (ClO2), and oxygen (O2). The term symbols indicate the quantum states of these molecules, where the notation includes information about the multiplicity, symmetry, and angular momentum. For NO2, the symbol ^{2}A_1 indicates a doublet state with A symmetry. For ClO2, ^{2}B_1 also signifies a doublet state but with B symmetry. In the case of O2, the symbol ^{3}\Sigma^{-}_g denotes a triplet state with sigma symmetry and a negative parity. The discussion encourages checking resources like Wikipedia for a deeper understanding of these symbols and their implications in molecular chemistry.

Oct 22, 2011

AxiomOfChoice

I'm trying to decipher exactly what it means to say the following things:

(1) The ground electronic state of NO_2 is ^{2}A_1;

(2) The ground electronic state of ClO_2 is ^{2}B_1;

(3) The ground electronic state of O_2 is ^{3}\Sigma^{-}_g.

I really don't have a clue what these symbols are supposed to mean. Can someone please help?

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Oct 23, 2011

Borek

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Have you checked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_term_symbol

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