this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
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Futurology
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Technically, since the two electrons in H2 are paired in the ground state, s = 0, which is the definition of a singlet :)
Oh no, has an actual chemist appeared?
I have yet to learn much about the exact physics of bonding.
Maybe :)
In chemistry, a singlet refers not to a single atom, but to a configuration with equal numbers of "spin up" and "spin down" electrons. This is the case for the ground state of many molecules (such as H2), but not all molecules. O2 is probably the simplest and most well-known example, with the electron configuration being most stable in the triplet state.