Bonding Without Orbitals
R. F. W. Bader, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont. L8S 4M1, Canada
WWW:www.chemistry.mcmaster.ca/faculty/bader
Vendredi 3 octobre 2003, 11h00
Tour 53, RdC, Salle Chouard
Matter is a distribution of charge in real space - of point-like nuclei
embedded in the diffuse density of electronic charge, D(r). All properties
of matter are made manifest in the charge distribution, its topology
delineating atoms and the bonding between them. Thus bonding, like other
properties, is evident in the measurable properties of a system, the bond
path. The participation of an atom in the formation of a bond path leads
to a lowering in its energy. The theory of atoms in molecules provides the
quantum definition of all atomic properties and provides a complete
characterisation of bonding, including electron delocalisation and the
identification of dative bonding in transition metal complexes. The
topology of the density and the physics that determines it transcend all
models, and the presence of a bond path in any structure unequivocally
identifies the atoms as bonded to one another regardless of any assumed
mechanism of bonding.