Molecular Orbitals of Transition Metal Complexes

The first chapter recalls the basis for electron counting in transition metal complexes. The main ligand fields (octahedral, square planar, tetrahedral, etc.) are studied in the second chapter and the structure of the “d block” is used to trace the relationships between the electronic structure and the geometry of the complexes. The third chapter studies the change in analysis when the ligands have pi-type interactions with the metal. All these ideas are then used in the fourth chapter to study a series of selected applications of varying complexity (e.g. structure and reactivity). The fifth chapter deals with the “isolobal analogy” which points out the resemblance between the molecular orbitals of inorganic and organic species and provides a bridge between these two subfields of chemistry. The last chapter is devoted to a presentation of basic Group Theory with applications to some of the complexes studied in the earlier chapters.