this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
57 points (82.8% liked)

Futurology

3151 readers
205 users here now

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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.