The Chemical Bond and Bonding

The Guest Editor's Introduction to the Special Issue

Dear Colleagues,

You may have noticed that 90 years have passed since the publication of the cornerstone and perplexing paper of Gilbert Newton Lewis (entitled The Atom and the Molecule, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1916, 38, 762) from where the quantum chemistry begins it own quest for the elucidation of the nature of chemical bond and bonding. This is the historical argument, a celebration year for chemical bonding, a moment of re-thinking about it.

An epistemological argument can be also formulated. As physical sciences seek the Grand Unifications of the existing Forces in Nature, a similar endeavor seems appropriate in Chemistry as well, since all manifest modes of bonding may be seen as facets of a basic chemical bonding content of different degrees of action, in different contexts and environments.

Then, recently, many exotic chemical situations have been reported, such as sextupole bonds, nano- and bio-molecules and aggregates that need both conceptual and computational explanations. The increased need of molecular design for assessing biotargets through pharmacophores, the practical demands of predictions of acute toxicity of medicines and environmental waste compounds, all these actual realities of chemistry in both its principles and applications deserve a special forum.

Finally, among other reputed journals similar projects have also appeared, thus underlying the importance in revisiting or reviewing the actual modes of bonding. Worth note is the recent 500-page special issue of the Journal of Computational Chemistry (JCC) of January 2007 (www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jissue/113493174).

For all these reasons I strongly believe that a special IJMS issue dedicated to CHEMICAL BOND AND BONDING would be highly appreciated by both theorists and experimentalists exploring the chemical state (for the BOND appellative) and reactivity (for the BONDING one).

On a personal ground I am fully engaged in scientific projects concerning unification of chemical bonding modes through quantum principles and indices. In this respect I bring to your attention my recent invited book chapter “Unifying absolute and chemical electronegativity and hardness density functional formulations through the chemical action concept”, in “Progress in Quantum Chemistry Research”; Erik O. Hoffman (ed.); Nova Publishers: New York, 2007 (in press); (www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=5571) as well my invited expert commentary: “Can quantum-mechanical description of chemical bond be considered complete?”, in “Quantum Chemistry Research Trends”, Mikas P. Kaisas (ed.); Nova Publishers: New York 2007 (in press); (www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=5570).

Therefore, in order to create a high quality platform for communication on the topic, I invite you to actively contribute to the special issue on “The Chemical Bond and Bonding”. As Guest Editor I am ready to examine in-depth all papers submitted for this volume and to provide my remarks to improve them for best publication.

Kind regards,
Dr. Mihai V. Putz

Leading Review Papers:

1. Lewis, G.N. The Atom and the Molecule. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1916, 38, 762-785.
2. Pauling, L. The Nature of the Chemical Bond. III. The Transition from One Extreme Bond Type to Another. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1932, 54, 988-1003.
3. Feynman, R.P. Forces in Molecules. Phys. Rev. 1939, 56, 340-343.
4. Hohenberg, P.; Kohn, W. Inhomogeneous Electronic Gas. Phys. Rev. 1964, 136, B864-B871.
5. Kohn, W.; Sham, L.J. Self-Consistent Equations Including Exchange and Correlation Effects. Phys. Rev. 1965, 140, A1133-A1138.
6. Deb, B.M. The Force Concept in Chemistry. Rev. Mod. Phys. 1973, 45, 22-43.
7. Bamzai, A.S.; Deb, B.M. The Role of Single-Particle Density in Chemistry. Rev. Mod. Phys. 1981, 53, 95-126.
8. Kohn, W.; Becke, A.D.; Parr, R.G. Density Functional Theory of Electronic Structure. J. Phys. Chem. 1996, 100, 12974-12980.
9. Krokidis, X.; Noury, S.; Silvi, B. Characterization of Elementary Chemical Processes by Catastrophe Theory. J. Phys. Chem. A 1997, 101, 7277-7282.
10. Bürgi, H.B. Structure Correlation and Chemistry. Acta Cryst. 1998, A54, 873-885.
11. Le Guennec, P. Towards a Theory of Molecular Recognition. Theor. Chem. Acc. 1999, 101, 151-158.
12. Ayers, P.W.; Parr, R.G. Variational Principles for Describing Chemical Reactions: The Fukui Function and Chemical Hardness Revisited. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2000, 122, 2010-2018.
13. Ayers, P.W.; Parr, R.G. Variational Principles for Describing Chemical Reactions. Reactivity Indices Based on the External Potential. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2001, 123, 2007-2017.
14. Ghosh, D.C.; Biswas, R. Theoretical Calculation of Absolute Radii of Atoms and Ions. Part 1. The Atomic Radii. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2002, 3, 87-113.
15. Pérez, P.; Andrés, J.; Safont, V.S.; Tapia, O.; Contreras, R. Spin-Philicity and Spin-Donicity as Auxiliary Concepts to Quantify Spin-Catalysis Phenomena. J. Phys. Chem. A 2002, 106, 5353-5357.
16. Politzer, P.; Lane, P.; Concha, M.C. Atomic and Molecular Energies in Terms of Electrostatic Potentials at Nuclei. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 2002, 90, 459-463.
17. Nalewajski, R.F. Applications of the Information Theory to Problems of Molecular Electronic Structure and Chemical Reactivity. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2002, 3, 237-259.
18. March, N.H. Classic Ionic Crystals and Quantal Wigner Electron Solids: Role of Electron Correlation. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 2003, 92, 11-21
19. Bian, Q.; Talman, J.D. Method for Evaluation of Density Functional Integrals in Molecular Calculations. Theor. Chem. Acc. 2004, 112, 141-144.
20. Genoni, A.; Sironi, M. A Novel Approach to Relax Extremely Localized Molecular Orbitals: The Extremely Localized Molecular Orbital-Valence Bond Method. Theor. Chem. Acc. 2004, 112, 254-262.
21. Kędzierski, P.; Wielgus, P.; Sikora, A.; Sokalski, W.A.; Leszczyński, J. Visualization of the Differential Transition State Stabilization within the Active Site Environment. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2004, 5, 186-195.
22. Tomasi, J. Thirty Years of Continuum Solvation Chemistry: A Review, and Prospects for the Near Future. Theor. Chem. Acc. 2004, 112, 184-203.
23. Putz, M.V. Markovian Approach of the Electron Localization Functions. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 2005, 105, 1-11.
24. Bredow, T.; Jug, K. Theory and Range of Modern Semiempirical Molecular Orbital Methods. Theor. Chem. Acc. 2005, 113, 1-14.
25. Yesylevskyy, S.O.; Kharkyanen, V.N.; Demchenko, A.P. Hierarchical Clustering of the Correlation Patterns: New Method of Domain Identification in Proteins. Biophys. Chem. 2006, 119, 84-93.
26. Putz, M.V. Systematic Formulation for Electronegativity and Hardness and Their Atomic Scales within Density Functional Softness Theory. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 2006, 106, 361-389.
27. Putz, M.V. Semiclassical Electronegativity and Chemical Hardness. J. Theor. Comp. Chem. 2007, 6, 33-47.
28. Bader, R.F.W.; Hernández-Trujillo, J.; Cortés-Guzmán, F. Chemical Bonding: From Lewis to Atoms in Molecules. J. Comput. Chem. 2007, 28, 4-14.
29. Kutzelnigg, W. What I Like About Hückel Theory. J. Comput. Chem. 2007, 28, 25-34.
30. Alabugin, I.V.; Manoharan, M. Rehybridization as a General Mechanism for Maximizing Chemical and Supramolecular Bonding and a Driving Force for Chemical Reactions. J. Comput. Chem. 2007, 28, 373-390.