Breakdown of the Hybridization Theory and the Ligand Field Problem

Abstract

Outside the narrow group of elements from beryllium to fluorine, the assumption of an approximately common radial function to be multiplied by a sum of angular functions belonging to different shells is not at all plausible. The apparent paradox in the behaviour of anti-bonding d-like orbitals in transition group complexes and the intensities of absorption bands (which are unexpectedly high in almost quadratic chromophores formed by copper[II] and palladium[II]) are discussed and compared with simpler diatomic molecules.