For atoms and molecules with more than one electron, the wavefunction cannot be written as a single Slater determinant, so the ground-state configuration of (the atom or molecule in question) is defined as the configuration whose Slater determinant has the largest (in absolute value) coefficient ...

It is clear that both the hexaamminecobalt(III) ion and the hexakis(trifluoromethyl)cobaltate(III) ion are both low spin (the former is already low spin, and the trifluoromethyl ligand is clearly softer than the ammine ligand) and therefore valence isoelectronic to each other, since the Jahn-Tell...

According to the NIST database, the ground-state configuration of plutonium(VIII) is [Hg]5f³6p³, when intuitively it should be the same as neutral radon([Hg]6p⁶). Since plutonium(VIII) compounds are already known, there are two problems: the plutonium(VIII) cation is paramagnetic; the core 6p sh...

In this question it is asked why ferrocene is colored when the HOMO-LUMO gap seems to be beyond the visible light range. I tried to answer that orbital energies change with electronic transitions and therefore the transition energy need not match the difference in orbital energies. However, my an...