When we look at the binding energy spectrum of an element, we see peaks originating from various atomic orbitals. If the atom changes in chemical state, the peak positions shift around. For example, the 2p and 2s peaks of Si shift to a higher binding energy in SiO2. But when a molecule is formed the atomic orbitals combine to form molecular orbitals. For example, the Si signals in SiO2 are no longer actually coming from 2s and 2p orbitals (I suspect they are due to non-bonding molecular orbitals formed by lone pair electrons from oxygen), yet we continue to give them these labels. Why?

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