this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
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Yup. The atoms are also small, for whatever that's worth.
Not sure why I got downvoted. Presumably people here are nerdy enough to know hydrogen isn't a noble gas and doesn't hang out as a singlet.
Technically, since the two electrons in H2 are paired in the ground state, s = 0, which is the definition of a singlet :)
Oh no, has an actual chemist appeared?
I have yet to learn much about the exact physics of bonding.
Maybe :)
In chemistry, a singlet refers not to a single atom, but to a configuration with equal numbers of "spin up" and "spin down" electrons. This is the case for the ground state of many molecules (such as H2), but not all molecules. O2 is probably the simplest and most well-known example, with the electron configuration being most stable in the triplet state.
Although singlet oxygen also exists and is reasonably (meta)stable, as you probably know, but someone reading might not. It has some neat properties, and is used as a source of excitation in a lot of chemical lasers because of the ease of production.
Do you know of any good sources for learning why, theoretically, certain molecule configurations work and are stable? I have a pretty good grasp of the basic quantum mechanics of electrons to draw from.