Answer to Question #196693 in Inorganic Chemistry for asu kaya

Question

Show the splitting of the d orbitals in

a)    An isolated metal ion  b) in a spherical field  c) in an octahedral field.

Answer 1

In a transition-metal complex, some of the d orbitals are closer to the ligands than other d orbitals are. The orbitals that are near the ligands get pushed up in energy, because the ligands have negative charge and so would any electrons in the orbital.