Ligand Field Splitting (Octahedral):

This applet models the lifting of the degeneracy of the d orbitals in an octahedral complex.

Clicking on xy, xz, yz, z2, or x2 - y2 will display the appropriate d orbital.

Click on D+ to increase the strength of the field (to transition to the strong-field / low-spin case), and D- to decrease the field (and approximate the weak-field / low-spin case).

If you click on z+, the axial bond length increases, and on z-, the axial bond length decreases. If the bond length increases sufficiently, the complexes becomes square planar. The energies of the orbitals shift during tetragonal distortion.



© 2004-2011 by Lawrence T. Sein. All rights reserved.

Send questions to: lseinjr@hotmail.com