CRYSTAL

FIELD
THEORY
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
01. 02. 03.
Historical Explanation.
Background. Crystal Field
Splitting Energy

04. 05. 06.

Nature of Ligands. Magnetic Behavior. Advantages and
Spectrochemical Colors of Limitations.
series. Coordination
Compounds
 Introduction
Co-ordination compounds have very interesting geometries.
Many of these can’t be explained by theories like VSEPR or
VBT due to presence of complex bonding than mere
overlapping of hybridized orbital. In order to explain these, we
have another model called “Crystal Field Theory”.
01.
Historical
Background.
 Historical Background.

Crystal field theory was introduced by two

physicists Hans Bethe (German-American)
and John Hasbrouck Van Vleck (American) in
the 1930s.
02.
Explanation.
 Explanation Of Crystal Field Theory.
 Crystal field theory deals with the metal atom and the Ligands as if they are
point charges, where the metal ion is considered as positive and Ligands as a
negative point charge.

1. CFT qualitatively describes the strength of metal-ligand bonds ,the magnetic

behavior of the complex compound and the color of the compound based on
the splitting of the degenerate d-orbital into two newly formed ones.
03.
Crystal Field
Splitting
Energy.
When the ligands come in contact with the metal ion, they break the degeneracy
of d-orbital and make it split into high and low energy orbitals. The difference in
energies of the newly split orbitals is called crystal field splitting energy (CFSE).

hhhk
 Factors Effecting CFSE.
 Orientation of ligand.
 Nature of ligand.
 Number of d electrons.
 Oxidation Number.
(Higher the Oxidation Number Greater will be the splitting energy)
 Size of ligand
 Electro negativity
 Size of Metal Atom
 Charge on Metal Atom
Orientation Of Ligands.
Octahederal
Complex And
Tetrahederal
Complex.
 Octahedral Complex.
1. Now we will see that Octahedral Complex Compounds have somewhat different distribution of d-orbitals in CFSE.
We will consider [Fe(H20)6]2+ (weak-field ligands) and [Fe(CN)6]4- (strong-field ligands)
Tetrahedral Complex
04.
Nature Of
Ligand.
Spectro
chemical
Series.
1. The splitting energy highly depends upon the nature of the ligand i.e: the weak field
ligand will produce a low splitting energy and vice versa.

2. Following is the series of strong and weak ligands.

3. This series is also known as the spectro-chemical series.
4. This series also helps us to tell the color of the compound.
5. The stronger the field the more the splitting energy and shorter will be the wavelength.
 05.
Magnetic
Behavior.
Colors of
Coordination
Compounds
 Magnetic Behavior
 When a strong field ligand attaches to a central metal atom
 The electron spin will be low i.e their will be more paired electrons than unpaired
ones.
 The compound will be diamagnetic i.e slightly repelled in a magnetic field.
 The opposite will happen when a weak field ligand will attach
 The compound will be paramagnetic i.e slightly attracted in the magnetic field.
 Identifying Colors With CFT.
 Colors can be identified with the help of Crystal Field Theory.
 In this process a white light is hits the complex compound. Out of all the colors in the
white light the electron absorbs a light of certain wavelength.
 This wavelength is inversely proportional to the crystal field splitting energy.
 The color it emits is a complimentary of the color it absorbs.
Identifying Colors With CFT.
06.
Advantages
and
Limitations.
 Advantages Over Other Theories.
 MOT discusses the magnetic behavior of compounds but it fails when it
comes to complex compounds like K4[Fe(CN)6].

 VBT cannot explain color emission of transition metals.

 Also VBT cannot describe the magnetic behavior of a compound whether it

be simple or complex.

 Due to these issues a new theory had to be deduced now known as Crystal
Field Theory.
 Limitations.
 The main drawback of crystal field theory is that it does not consider the
covalent character in metal--ligand bond at all.

 It treats the metal ligand interaction purely in an electrostatic framework

which is pretty far from reality.

 The theory rules out the possibility of having p bonding

THANK
YOU!
 BROUGHT TO YOU BY.
●Junaid Habib.
●Ibraheem Ejaz.
●Muhammad Abdullah Nasir.
●Adnan Mehmood.
●Saad Iqbal.