JEE Main · 2023 · 24 Jan 2023 · Shift 2 · Coordination Compounds

Crystal field theory treats the metal-ligand interaction as purely electrostatic, and from the resulting $d$-orbital splitting it accounts for magnetic behaviour through electron pairing, for colour through $d$-$d$ transitions, and for stability through the crystal field stabilisation energy. The relative placing of ligands in the spectrochemical series, however, is drawn from measured splitting values and cannot be derived from the electrostatic model itself, since it depends on $\pi$-bonding and covalent effects outside the theory. The feature crystal field theory fails to explain is the order of the spectrochemical series.