Ligand Field Splitting of d Orbitals in Eight Coordinated Complexes of Dodecahedral Structure

The splitting and the order of d orbitals in a dodecahedron (D2d) is deduced from the known order of these orbitals in a cube, considering the effect of the distortion of the cube into the dodecahedron on individual d orbitals. The most stable orbital is dxy and it is interesting to note that this orbital is not used in dodecahedral d4sp3 hybridization. The ligand field calculations for different distorted cubic environments support the qualitative discussion.