π‐Orbital electron–energy contributions to chemical reaction heats, I. Reactions involving only linear molecules containing up to three first–row atoms

Abstract

AbstractAb initio calculations of various expectation energies have been made for the reactant and product species in six reactions that involve only small linear molecules. The reactions include fission by hydrogen, addition of hydrogen, exchange of triply bonded atoms, fluorination, and oxygen atom transfer. The change in total electronic energy is not invariably the result of changes in inner shell energy and outer shell σ‐ and π‐electron energies simply augmenting each other, but in several cases there is a complex interplay of opposing effects. This approach gives a different insight into the energetic aspects of changes in bonding from that derived from the concept of shared electron pairs in σ and π bonds together with lone pairs in valence shells. Changes in π‐electron energy are shown to be important in a reaction in which neither reactant nor product molecules contain π bonds in the usual chemical sense. While in a reaction in which there is a complete change in the nature of the triple bonds, and hence the π bonding, the change in π‐electron energy makes a smaller contribution than either the change in inner shell or the outer shell σ‐electron energies.