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Bending Ternary Dihalides: A Single Functional Form For Linearization Energies, Supreeth Prasad, Kelling J. Donald

Arts & Sciences Student Symposium

Introduction

Although the bonding in the symmetric groups 2 and 12 dihalides (MX2) has been studied extensively1,2, remarkably little work –experimental or theoretical – has been done on the mixed (ternary) dihalides, MXY. Previously, a criterion3,4 based on atomic softness (σ) was proposed for the bending of MX2 and MXY molecules. We extend this softness criterion on the slate of the mixed dihalides and the predicted separation is achieved between the bent and linear structures with almost the same cutoff, and with quasilinear species straddling the boundary. In this work, we report a complete assessment of the bonding preferences and …