What happens when light is absorbed by molecules?
Promotion of electrons When we were talking about the various sorts of orbitals present in organic compounds on the introductory page (see above), you will have come across this diagram showing their relative energies: Remember that the diagram isn’t intended to be to scale – it just shows the relative placing of the different orbitals. When light passes through the compound, energy from the light is used to promote an electron from a bonding or non-bonding orbital into one of the empty anti-bonding orbitals.
