Quantum Mechanical Basis of Conceptual Chemistry
R. F. W. Bader, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont. L8S 4M1, Canada
WWW:www.chemistry.mcmaster.ca/faculty/bader
Jeudi 8 septembre 2005, 11h00
Science is observation, experiment and theory. This is the path that
led to the development of the molecular structure hypothesis - that a
molecule is a collection atoms with characteristic properties linked
by a network of bonds that impart a structure - a concept forged in
the crucible of nineteenth century experimental chemistry. One hundred
and fifty years of experimental chemistry underlie the realization
that the properties of some total system, molecule or crystal, are
the sum of its atomic contributions. The lecture will demonstrate
that this conceptual basis of chemistry is recovered in its entirety
by the Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules, a theory grounded in the
quantum mechanics of an open system and given physical expression in
terms of a system's measurable charge distribution.