I understand that to create a molecular orbital diagram, the following rules are supposed to be met:
- number of A.Os = number of M.Os
- Symmetry of the binding orbitals
- Similarity in energy
They will eventually create bonding, anti-bonding, and maybe non-bonding orbitals. However, I am having trouble stacking them up in a correct order. For instance, if you refer to the attached diagram below, I don't know how it first starts with 4a1' and goes up to 5a1'. The only clear ones for me are the non-bonding orbitals, which have the same energy as the original group orbitals.
Could you please help me understand this? The coefficients that come in front of letters are also confusing me as well...
Thank you so much!