3p wave function and nodal structures

Movie representing the ψ3p - the 3p wave function. Yellow represents positive values for the wave function and white represents negative values. One of the aims of the movie is to illustrate the nodal structure.

The graph on the left is a surface plot of ψ3p on a slice drawn through the nucleus while the plot on the right shows values along a single line drawn through the nucleus. In this case the plot shows a 3px orbital. The points on the line plot or the surface plot where the colour changes from one to the other represent the points at which the orbital nodal sphere crosses the line or surface. See the 3p electron density page for information about its electron density (the square of the wave function).

Each 3p orbital has a planar node normal to the axis of the orbital (so the 3px orbital has a yz nodal plane, for instance) and one spherical nodal surface). The higher p-orbitals ( 4p, 5p, 6p, and 7p) are more complex since they have more spherical nodes while the lower p-orbitals ( 2p) have fewer.


The OrbitronTM, a gallery of orbitals on the WWW: https://winter.group.shef.ac.uk/orbitron/
Copyright 2002-2023 Prof. Mark Winter [The University of Sheffield]. All rights reserved.