Hydrogen bond
Enlace de hidrógeno
- Date
- 1920 · confidence medium
- Place
- University of California, Berkeley, United States
- Credited to
- Wendell Latimer and Worth Rodebush (precedents from Moore and Winmill, 1912; Huggins)
- People
- 👤 Wendell Mitchell Latimer1893–1955👤 Worth H. Rodebush1887–1959
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
A hydrogen atom bonded to an electronegative atom can interact with another electronegative atom, forming a weak, directional bond. It explains the anomalies of water, the structure of ice and, later, the double helix and protein folding.
Latimer and Rodebush published the concept; Maurice Huggins claimed to have proposed it in 1919 as a student.
What it led to
- Chemistry of water
- Secondary structure of proteins (Pauling)
- Base pairing in DNA
- Supramolecular chemistry
Built on
- Covalent electron-pair bond and octet rule (Lewis)1916
- Lewis bond
- association theory of liquids
Made possible
- Supramolecular chemistry: crown ethers, cryptands, host-guest chemistry1967-1978
- drug design by molecular recognition