Chemical Bonding and Molecular Geometry

Written by one of the world's foremost authorities on the chemical bond, this textbook is ideal for courses on chemical bonding in chemistry departments at the senior/first year graduate level and can also be used to supplement inorganic survey courses needing and increased focus on bonding. The ideal course will contain the word "Bonding" in the course title, e.g. Chemical bonding. The text starts with the basic principles of bonding and proceeds to advanced level topics in the same volume. It provides undergraduate (and 1st year graduate) students with an introduction to models and theories of chemical bonding and geometry as applied to the molecules of the main group elements. It gives students an understanding of how the concept of the chemical bond has developed since its earliest days, through Lewis' brilliant concept of the electron pair bond, up until the present day. The text also elucidates the relationship between these various models and theories. Particular emphasis is placed on the valence-shell electron pair (VSEPR) and ligand close packing (LCP) models as well as the analysis of electron density distributions by the atoms in molecules (AIM) theory. The book is ideal for courses specifically devoted to bonding or to supplement inorganic chemistry courses at both the intermediate and advanced levels.