PARADIGMS AND PARADOXES - THE BONDING IN THE OZONE MOLECULE - FROM A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

A new qualitative treatment of the bonding in ozone is presented. It i s based upon a combination of several simple concepts: the nonparticip ation of the pairs of electrons tightly held in the atomic 2s orbitals ; simple overlap of the 2p orbitals to form sigma bonds; interaction o f three 2p orbitals to yield bonding and nonbonding pi molecular orbit als that are populated by electron pairs; and van der Waals repulsion between the two terminal oxygen atoms forcing these atoms apart to yie ld the bond angle of 117 degrees as a compromise. Both the assumptions and the resulting bonding picture are in accord with the photoelectro n spectroscopic data, the results from sophisticated molecular orbital calculations, and the common physical properties of ozone.