UV spectroscopy transition

[brood910]

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I have a question about bonding and nonbonding electron transitions in UV spectroscopy..
According to EK, pi electrons move from bonding to nonbonding orbitals, while other places say they move from bonding to antibonding orbitals. WHO IS RIGHT? I thought pi* means anti, but EK is saying it is nonbonding, wtf? Is this an error?

Also, why are they specifically moving to antibonding? Is it because they absorb energy from UV to go to higher energy state?

 

[brood910]

bump

 

[jonhamm]

I would say that your context is pretty vague and it would depend on the molecule you're talking about. In general, though, yes, pi* means pi antibonding.

That said, EK is riddled with errors, and for that reason I wouldn't recommend using it unless you've exhausted other materials. I stopped when I got to the question about anti-mitotic drugs inhibiting bacterial division.

 

[brood910]

I would say that your context is pretty vague and it would depend on the molecule you're talking about. In general, though, yes, pi* means pi antibonding.

That said, EK is riddled with errors, and for that reason I wouldn't recommend using it unless you've exhausted other materials. I stopped when I got to the question about anti-mitotic drugs inhibiting bacterial division.

Thanks for the reply. I use EK only for content review for orgo and bio, so no worries.