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🧲 Jahn-Teller Distortion Lab

Explore why degenerate electronic states are unstable: watch an octahedral copper(II) complex spontaneously elongate its axial bonds to split orbital energies and lower total electronic energy.

Chemistry & Materials3DModerate60 FPS

The simulator demonstrates how a degenerate eg orbital pair in an octahedral copper(II) complex splits in energy as the octahedron is distorted along its z-axis, and how that split, combined with uneven electron filling, produces a net energy minimum at a non-zero, non-symmetric geometry rather than at the perfectly symmetric octahedron.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

🎮 How to Use

Choose a d-electron configuration to load into the octahedral complex, then drag the axial distortion slider to stretch or compress the two axial bonds while watching the d-orbital energy-level diagram split apart in real time. Switch between the elongation and compression pathways to compare the depth of each energy well, and open the spectrum and EPR panels to see how the distortion reshapes the predicted optical absorption band and magnetic anisotropy.

💡 Did You Know?

Some Jahn-Teller-distorted copper(II) complexes elongate their axial bonds so far, sometimes beyond 2.4 angstroms compared to roughly 2.0 angstroms equatorially, that the axial ligands become only weakly bound, effectively blurring the boundary between six-coordinate octahedral and four-coordinate square-planar geometry.

⚙ Under the hood

Explore why degenerate electronic states are unstable: watch an octahedral copper(II) complex spontaneously elongate its axial bonds to split orbital energies and lower total electronic energy.

jahn-teller effectcrystal field theorycoordination chemistrymolecular symmetrytransition metalsorbital degeneracyinorganic chemistryligand field

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install