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Chemistry · Glossary

What is Crystal field?

Also known as: crystal-field model · crystal-field splitting

Definition 19.1 University Chemistry — Year 2 · Chapter 19 — Ligand Field Theory and Colour

The crystal-field model treats the ligands of a complex as negative point charges (or the negative ends of dipoles) around the metal ion, and computes how they change the energies of its d orbitals. In an octahedral field, the d orbitals split into two sets separated by the crystal-field splitting Δo\Delta_o.

Two d orbitals among the four ligands of the xy plane of an octahedron (black dots). The lobes of d_x2-y2 point at the ligands, those of d_xy between them.
Two d orbitals among the four ligands of the xyxy plane of an octahedron (black dots). The lobes of dx2−y2\mathrm d_{x^2-y^2} point at the ligands, those of dxy\mathrm d_{xy} between them.
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