What is crystal field splitting energy? How does the magnitude of ∆o decide the actual configuration of d orbitals in a coordination entity?
There is a splitting of energy of the degenerate d-orbitals of the metal atom and this splitting of degenerated d-orbitals is due to the asymmetric repulsive field of ligands is known as crystal field splitting and energy gap in between split d-levels is known as CFSE (crystal field splitting energy) which is denoted as ∆o for octahedral geometry. The electrons start filling up the vacant spaces, once the orbitals split up due to which each electron goes into the three t2g orbitals and the fourth electron can enter either the tg orbital producing t2g 3eg 1 like electronic configuration or the t2g orbital producing t2g 4eg 0 like configuration. The filling of the fourth electron depends on the energy level of ∆o. The fourth electron enters the eg orbital if the ligand has value of ∆o which is smaller than the pairing energy. The fourth electron enters the t2g orbital if ∆o has a greater value than the pairing energy.
