Nearly all tetrahedral complexes are

Options

A. high spin
B. low spin
C. intermediate spin
D. complex spin

Answer

A

Explanation

Different geometric arrangements of the ligands give different energy splitting for the d orbitals. The splitting pattern in tetrahedral complexes is just the opposite of that in octahedral complexes , that is the `t_(2g)` orbitals have higher energy than the `e_(g)` orbitals. As with octahedral complexes, the energy ordering follows form the relative orientation of the orbital obes and the ligands. Because none of the orbitals points directly at the ligands in terahedral geometry and because there are only four ligands instead of six, the crystal field splitting in tetrahedral complexes in only about half `(4//9)` of that in octahedral complexes. Consequently, `Delta_(t)` is almost always smaller than the spin pairing energy P, and nearly all tetrahedral complexes are high spin.