The source of chemical bonding |
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Authors: | Paul Needham |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Philosophy, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33620, United States;2. Department of Philosophy, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057, United States |
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Abstract: | Developments in the application of quantum mechanics to the understanding of the chemical bond are traced with a view to examining the evolving conception of the covalent bond. Beginning with the first quantum mechanical resolution of the apparent paradox in Lewis’s conception of a shared electron pair bond by Heitler and London, the ensuing account takes up the challenge molecular orbital theory seemed to pose to the classical conception of the bond. We will see that the threat of delocalisation can be overstated, although it is questionable whether this should be seen as reinstating the issue of the existence of the chemical bond. More salient are some recent developments in a longstanding discussion of how to understand the causal aspects of the bonding interaction—the nature of the force involved in the covalent link—which are taken up in the latter part of the paper. |
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Keywords: | Chemical bonding Molecular orbital theory Localised bonds Hellmann–Feynman theorem Virial theorem Kinetic energy pressure |
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