New Landscape of Electron-Pair Bonding: Covalent, Ionic, and Charge-Shift Bonds (original) (raw)

Electron pairing and chemical bonds: Chemical bonds from the condition of minimum fluctuation of electron pair

International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 1998

The role of electron pairing in chemical bonding stressed by the Lewis electron-pair model of the chemical bond is analyzed and discussed from the point of view of the proposal that chemical bonds are the regions of space populated roughly by two electrons and which at the same time exhibit low fluctuation of an electron pair. Based on this assumption, we have been able to introduce a new localization procedure, Ž. the output of which are just the orbitals chemical bonds satisfying the criterion of minimum pair fluctuation. It has been shown that these orbitals remarkably well display the most important attributes of chemical bonds, namely, the localization in the regions where classical bonds are expected and there is very high transferability from one molecule to another. The applicability of this procedure as a new means of the analysis and the visualization of the molecular structure is also discussed.

The physical origin of large covalent?ionic resonance energies in some two-electron bonds

Faraday Discussions, 2007

This study uses valence bond (VB) theory to analyze in detail the previously established finding that alongside the two classical bond families of covalent and ionic bonds, which describe the electron-pair bond, there exists a distinct class of charge-shift bonds (CS-bonds) in which the fluctuation of the electron pair density plays a dominant role. Such bonds are characterized by weak binding, or even a repulsive, covalent component, and by a large covalent-ionic resonance energy RE CS that is responsible for the major part, or even for the totality, of the bonding energy. In the present work, the nature of CS-bonding and its fundamental mechanisms are analyzed in detail by means of a VB study of some typical homonuclear bonds (H-H, H 3 C-CH 3 , H 2 N-NH 2 , HO-OH, F-F, and Cl-Cl), ranging from classical-covalent to fully charge-shift bonds. It is shown that CSbonding is characterized by a covalent dissociation curve with a shallow minimum situated at long interatomic distances, or even a fully repulsive covalent curve. As the atoms that are involved in the bond are taken from left to right or from bottom to top of the periodic table, the weakening effect of the adjacent bonds or lone pairs increases, while at the same time the reduced resonance integral, that couples the covalent and ionic forms, increases. As a consequence, the weakening of the covalent interaction is gradually compensated by a strengthening of CS-bonding. The large RE CS quantity of CS-bonds is shown to be an outcome of the mechanism necessary to establish equilibrium and optimum bonding during bond formation. It is shown that the shrinkage of the orbitals in the covalent structure lowers the potential energy, V, but excessively raises the kinetic energy, T, thereby tipping the virial ratio off-balance. Subsequent addition of the ionic structures lowers T while having a lesser effect on V, thus restoring the requisite virial ratio (T/ÀV = 1/2). Generalizing to typically classical covalent bonds, like H-H or C-C bonds, the mechanism by which the virial ratio is obeyed during bond formation is primarily orbital shrinkage, and therefore the charge-shift resonance energy has only a small corrective effect. On the other hand, for bonds bearing adjacent lone pairs and/or involving electronegative atoms, like F-F or Cl-Cl, the formation of

Electron pairing and chemical bonds. Electron fluctuation and pair localization in ELF domains

Journal of Computational Chemistry, 2005

This article reports the numerical comparison of the quantities characterizing the extent of electron fluctuation and pair localization in the domains determined by the direct minimization of electron fluctuation with the domains resulting from the partitioning of the molecules based on the topological analysis of the so-called electron localization function (ELF). Such a comparison demonstrates that the ELF partitioning can be regarded as a feasible alternative to computationally much more demanding direct optimization of minimum fluctuation domains. This opened the possibility of the systematic scrutiny of the electron pair model of the chemical bond, and as it was demonstrated, the previous pessimistic claims about the applicability of this model are not completely justified.

Bond electron pair: Its relevance and analysis from the quantum chemistry point of view

Journal of Computational Chemistry, 2007

This paper first comments on the surprisingly poor status that Quantum Chemistry has offered to the fantastic intuition of Lewis concerning the distribution of the electrons in the molecule. Then, it advocates in favor of a hierarchical description of the molecular wave-function, distinguishing the physics taking place in the valence space (in the bond and between the bonds), and the dynamical correlation effects. It is argued that the clearest pictures of the valence electronic population combine two localized views, namely the bond (and lone pair) Molecular Orbitals and the Valence Bond decomposition of the wave-function, preferably in the orthogonal version directly accessible from the complete active space self consistent field method. Such a reading of the wave function enables one to understand the work of the nondynamical correlation as an enhancement of the weight of the low-energy VB components, i.e. as a better compromise between the electronic delocalization and the energetic preferences of the atoms. It is suggested that regarding the bond building, the leading dynamical correlation effect may be the dynamical polarization phenomenon. It is shown that most correlation effects do not destroy the bond electron pairs and remain compatible with Lewis' vision. A certain number of free epistemological considerations have been introduced in the development of the argument. q

The mechanics of charge-shift bonds: A perspective from the electronic stress tensor

Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, 2011

The mechanism of charge-shift bonding is discussed from the perspective of the electronic stress tensor. In charge-shift bonds, the tensile mode of the stress tensor (attraction of electrons to the nuclei) is stronger, relative to the compressive modes (attraction of electrons toward the bond axis) than in conventional covalent bonds. Similar bonding indicators based on the eigenvalues of the tensor of second derivatives of the electron density and bond metallicity measures also correlate with charge-shift binding. These indicators seem preferable to the electron-density Laplacian and the local energy density because they can distinguish between weak covalent bonds and charge-shift bonds.► The electronic stress tensor measures forces on electrons in a chemical bond. ► The ratio of tensile to compressive stresses reveals charge-shift character. ► Bond metallicity measures can also identify charge-shift bonds.

Valence states and a universal potential energy curve for covalent and ionic bonds

Chemical Physics Letters, 1995

The relations between the diatomic spectroscopic constants and a novel parameter Dvs, the valence state dissociation energy, are investigated. An energy scaling by Dvs, instead of the spectroscopic D e, allows the formulation of a universal three-parameter valence state potential energy curve (VS-PEC). The second and higher derivatives at the equilibrium 2 distance, R e, are simple functions of a valence state parameter z = keRe/Dv s. The analysis of the VS-PECs of 25 single and multiple bonded molecules covering the whole range of polarity reveals a far greater similarity near the minimum than previously reported. In comparison with the Morse and Rydberg potentials, the accuracy of the calculated vibration-rotation coupling and anharmonicity constants is improved by an order of magnitude.