So recently I have undertaken some research with some organometallic chemistry involved, specifically regarding that of ruthenium-aryl compounds. Trying to understand the chemistry of the central metal ion, I noticed something weird a couple of weeks ago, from Wikipedia: Ruthenium only has one electron in that orbital ($4d^75s^1$), rather than the two one would expect a transition metal to have, going with a naive Aufbau across the periodic table.
I am aware, I think, in the 4th period period transition metals, of a tendency to promote their 4s electrons to the 3d orbitals, when possible, so that they have either "half-filled" (5 electrons) or completely filled (10 electron) shells. These are "magic numbers" for transition metals, apparently; just another one of those heuristic things they teach you in inorganic chemistry that I wish I understood more about. But alas, ruthenium has an asymmetric 7 electrons in its 4d orbital, blasted thing.
Does anyone know anything? I tried using Google Scholar and a few databases, but when I type in "orbital" pretty much all I see is molecular orbital calculations specific to particular molecules. I'd really love to see papers pointing at some faint ideas I may be dimly aware about...
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