[valyr]

I've got a question on d-orbital splitting diagrams for trigonal prismatic complexes.

1) If I were to have a generic M(L-L)₃ complex. What sort of splitting diagram would result? This complex is due to bidentate chelate ligands with small bite angles. I honestly have no idea what small bite angles have to do with the splitting diagrams. I can only assume that because of the smaller bite, each ligand reorients itself in such away that there's less interaction with the other ligands.

2) If I have VO(acac)₂, which is a square pyramidal, what sort of splitting diagram would I have? I know it's d¹, and paramagnetic, so it's got one lone electron hanging out in d_xz. I also assume the acac ligand would have an effect, but it is not in the spectrochemical series. Would it look something like:

dx²-dy²                   ----
dx²                        ----
dxy                        ----
dxz  dyz            ----      ----

it seems like it's absolutely identical to the square planar d-splitting diagram, is there any differentiating factor here?

The 4th edition of descriptive inorganic chemistry by Rayner-Canham, Overtone has absolutely nothing on it nor can I find any research or discussion about it on the internet without being referenced to costly journals. If anything, the only information concerning trigonal prismatic complexes that I've found is that the few that are studied are commonly d⁰.

source: http://www.d.umn.edu/~pkiprof/ChemWebV2/Coordination/CN6.html

Any sort of hint, advice, or even available literature on the internet on the nature of trigonal prismatic geometry would be greatly appreciated.