Premium
A Bonding Quandary—or—A Demonstration of the Fact That Scientists Are Not Born With Logic
Author(s) -
Alvarez Santiago,
Hoffmann Roald,
Mealli Carlo
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.200900239
Subject(s) - antibonding molecular orbital , bond , chemical bond , population , chemistry , cluster (spacecraft) , genealogy , atomic orbital , theoretical physics , chemical physics , electron , physics , sociology , history , computer science , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , demography , finance , economics , programming language
We document here a spirited debate among three colleagues and friends who have strong opinions on a specific bonding problem, the presence or absence of a cross‐ring sulfur–sulfur bond in a trinuclear Cu 3 S 2 cluster. The example may seem esoteric, but through their struggles with this specific bond (and with each other) the authors approach the more general problematic of chemistry, the chemical bond. The discussion focuses on bond lengths and the population of bonding and antibonding orbitals, and on oxidation states, electron counting, and associated geometries. It expands to encompass other bonding criteria, and introduces examples ranging far across organic and inorganic chemistry. The authors suggest molecules that might test their ideas. An Appendix to the paper discusses a matter rarely broached in the chemical literature—should one review for publication a paper which criticizes one of your own contributions.