The Chemistry of Xenon

The photo-electron spectrum of XeF2

“…based on qualitative m.0. arguments have to be taken with caution, however, especially in molecules, where ionic binding makes an important contribution to the stability of the molecule as in XeF, (6).…”

“…Calculations indicate (6) It is not easy to see which of the additional orbitals can be taken to explain the structure observed at 20 eV. This question must be left open until better calculations or photo-electron spectra produced with more energetic radiation give enough information about the lower molecular orbitals of XeF,.…”

“…As there are only 16 valence electrons to be accommodated by the basis set chosen thus the o,;, orbital is left unoccupied for the ground state of XeF,. This leads to an atomic net charge distribution with about + 1 around the Xe atom and -112 around each F atom (3,6). The order of the o, and K, orbitals is practically undetermined within this approximation.…”

Effects of electron correlation in X-ray diffraction and an electron diffraction study of XeF6

“…An electron diffraction study was undertaken to determine if the molecule possessed octahedral symmetry as suggested by several authors (28,29,30). The results of this study show that the symmetry is not 0^ and suggest a slightly distorted octahedral model containing Xe-F bonds of differing length.…”

“…Attempts to establish the structure of XeFg, however, have not been conclusive (25,26). In addition, a number of theoretical treatments have resulted in conflicting predictions about the molecular geometry (27,28,29,30). …”