Title
Assessing the Correlation Between the Electron-Nucleus Binding and Electron-Electron Repulsion
Project Type
Poster
Publication Date
4-12-2022
Department or Program
Chemistry and Physics
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Faculty Mentor #1
Giancarlo, Leanna
Abstract
Multi-electron systems add a level of complexity to the Schrödinger equation by introducing an electron-electron repulsion term into the potential energy. The electron-electron repulsion term is difficult to assess utilizing the Schrödinger equation due to extensive computation required. In this study, the binding energy between the 1s electron(s) and the nucleus of the atoms in the first two rows of the periodic table were determined using an ab initio computational method, 6-31G*, that incorporated the electron-electron repulsion instead of assuming that electrons act independently of one another. As the number of electrons increased, pushing the 1s electrons closer to the nucleus, the number of protons also increased, therefore forming a stronger attractive force between the nucleus and the 1s electrons. This finding was supported via the increasingly negative binding energy in correlation to the increase in protons. It was further found that the effective nuclear charge, which incorporates repulsive and attractive forces experienced within the system, linearly increased with the number of protons which agrees with the binding energies of the atoms.