New development of concept of electronegativity

The concept of electronegativity (EN), which was proposed by Pauling in 1932, is closely related to such properties of molecules as the polarizability, hardness (softness) and charge distribution, and is an important theoretical basis for judging the properties of substances. With the development of new materials and the increase of interdisciplinary cooperation, EN has been a basic atomic parameter which is widely used in the fields of chemistry, physics and materials science. The development of EN has involved three stages, atomic EN, ionic EN and bond EN. The ionic EN, which is the EN values of elements in different valence states by including the chemical environment of atoms, accurately describes various physical and chemical properties of ions and compounds. The bond EN is a bridge linking atomic EN and the properties of materials, which helps us to establish the quantitative correlation between macroscopic properties and microscopic electronic structures of materials. The concepts of ionic EN and bond EN broaden the scope of EN theory, and play important roles in the design of novel materials. This paper presents a detailed introduction of a new development of EN and its applications in materials research. Supported by the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (Grant No. NCET-05-0278) and Foundation for the Author of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation of China (Grant No. 200322)