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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2007  > July  >
Research: Science and Education
The Mechanism of Covalent Bonding: Analysis within the Hückel Model of Electronic Structure
Sture Nordholm and Andreas Bäck
Department of Chemistry, Göteborg University, SE-412 96 Göteborg, Sweden

George B. Bacskay
School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

Cover
July 2007
Vol. 84 No. 7
p. 1201
Abstract
The correct description and interpretation of covalent bonding require a quantum mechanical approach. Hückel molecular orbital theory, the simplest quantum mechanical model of molecular electronic structure, is (and in an accompanying online article) shown to be a uniquely useful pedagogical path to the understanding and interpretation of the mechanism of covalent bonding. Using the Hückel model it can be demonstrated that the dynamical character of the molecular orbitals is related simultaneously to the covalent bonding mechanism and to the degree of delocalization of the electron dynamics. The resonance stabilization of conjugated molecules thus corresponds to a special case of the fundamental principle of covalent bonding—the relaxation of dynamical constraints by the delocalization of electronic motion. The covalent bonding mechanism can be seen to arise ultimately from a relaxation of nonergodic constraints on the electron dynamics of the separated atoms leading towards free translation of the valence electrons over two or more atomic centers in a molecule.
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Citation
Nordholm, Sture; Bäck, Andreas; Bacskay, George B. J. Chem. Educ. 2007, 84, 1201.
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Keywords
Covalent Bonding; First-Year Undergraduate / General; Graduate Education / Research; Internet / Web-Based Learning; MO Theory; Physical Chemistry; Quantum Chemistry; Second-Year Undergraduate; Theoretical Chemistry; Upper-Division Undergraduate
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History
Created:
Last Updated:
5/29/2007
6/7/2007
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