Bent Chemical Bonds

Abstract

The obvious and not original conclusion is that the results obtained from considerations of sp³ hybridization in the substituted methanes breaks down as soon as all of the bonding atoms are not equivalent. Indeed, the concept of sp³ localized carbon hybrids may be invalid even for tetrahedral molecules like CCl₄ where the result of tetrahedral angles may be inferred from a naive hard sphere model. In other words the electrons in CCl₄ have a more delocalized molecular quality than the apparently more localized atomic quality in CH₄. This result implies that perhaps a Hartree-Fock treatment of the outer valence electrons in the substituted methanes (frozen inner atomic shells) might give a fairly good description of the electron distribution. On the other hand, the valence bond method would have to be carried well past the convenient approximation of perfect pairing. McWeeny and Ohno (23) were quite optimistic about the frozen inner atomic shell approximation in their treatment of H₂O. As far as the strained small-ring compounds it appears the bending of a bond is a function of where one decides to draw the line between localized and delocalized character. Finally, no more appropriate ending could be contrived than a classic quote by Professor R. S. Mulliken (37), "I believe the chemical bond is not so simple as some people seem to think."