Donors and Acceptors

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A donor is a high energy orbital with one or more electrons An acceptor is a low energy orbital with one or more vacancies:

• A donor is an atom or group of atoms whose highest filled atomic orbital or molecular orbital is higher in energy than that of a reference orbital

• An acceptor is an atom or group of atoms whose lowest unfilled atomic or molecular orbital is lower in energy than that of a reference orbital.

Why do we use reference orbital?

Because the driving force for an electron in an orbital to be transferred (donated) to another orbital (an acceptor orbital) is related to the difference in energy between the orbital not the absolute energy.