Posted By: Alvan Hengge, Faculty, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Utah State University
Area of science: Chemistry
ID: 908578734.Ch
Message:
Dan,
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that is certainly true
in describing the shape of f-orbitals, as it would take at least that many
to try to convey an accurate representation of these orbitals. What is
shown in the image below is a representation of the electron density in f
orbitals, taken from an article in the Journal of Chemical Education, 1985,
voume 62, pages 206-209. Another source for this is the book by Cotton,
Wilkinson,and Gauss: "Basic Inorganic Chemistry", p. 44, figure 2-8.
