The lower electronic levels of the radicals CH, CH2, CH3, NH, NH2, BH, BH2and BH3

Abstract
This paper describes a semi-emprical quantitative theory of the low-lying electronic states of the radicals CH, CH2, CH3, NH, NH2, BH, BH2 and BH3. The method combines certain features of the valence-bond theory and Moffitt's method of Atoms in Molecules, and bond bending is taken into account. The results are in excellent general agreement with experiment: the ground state of CH2 is a linear 3Σ g - state, whose potential energy curve crosses that of the lowest singlet state which is bent. The CH3 radical is predicted to resist out-of-plane deformation quite strongly, and the BH2 radical is predicted to be linear in its ground state.

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