Quantum theory of the chemical bond: valence bond, hybridization and resonance (Pauling)
Naturaleza cuántica del enlace químico: enlace de valencia, hibridación y resonancia
- Date
- 1927-1931 · confidence high
- Place
- Caltech, Pasadena, California, United States
- Credited to
- Linus Pauling (building on Heitler and London, 1927)
- People
- 👤 Linus Pauling1901–1994
- Field
- Matter & energy
What was discovered
Heitler and London explain the bonding of H2 by quantum mechanics; Pauling generalises it with orbital hybridisation (tetrahedral sp3), resonance between structures (benzene) and the electronegativity scale (1932). His book 'The Nature of the Chemical Bond' (1939) reshapes chemistry.
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1954.
What it led to
- Quantum chemistry
- Structural chemistry
- Molecular biology (the alpha helix, 1951)
- Materials design
Built on
- Covalent electron-pair bond and octet rule (Lewis)1916
- quantum mechanics (Schrodinger, 1926)
- Lewis bond
Made possible
- Ab initio computational chemistry (Pople, Gaussian)1970
- prediction of molecular geometries