I was reading about Molecular Orbital Theory, and saw that you can treat a central atom's atomic orbitals as hybrid orbitals in order to simplify the process of creating molecular orbitals by no longer having to look at the symmetries of the AOs. I was interested by the fact that the same type of hybridization (sp, sp2, sp3) that one uses in VBT is used when simplifying MO Theory with hybrid orbitals. Is this because the observations of bond angles and bond equivalency that led to hybridization in VBT could be explained by looking at the molecular orbitals of the molecule? In a way, by using hybrid orbitals to simplify the creation of molecular orbitals, are you just reverse engineering observations about molecular shape to determine what the orbitals must be without using symmetry arguments?
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2$\begingroup$ Molecular orbital theory and Valence bond theory are equivalent at their respective limits using the same basis; they will produce exactly the same result. They just approach the solution from different angles. Therefore it is natural that you can express characteristics of the one within the framework of the other. However, this is mathematically a bit easier going from molecular orbitals to Valence bond (or localised) orbitals. Please also note that hybridisation in VB is not discrete; look up Bent's rule. $\endgroup$– Martin - マーチン ♦Sep 19, 2021 at 18:06
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$\begingroup$ Would Bent's rule apply to the hybrid orbitals you create to simplify MO creation? $\endgroup$– AkashSep 19, 2021 at 18:53
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