In: Chemistry
What is the role of kinetic energy quantization in covalent bond formation? [keywords: particle-in-a-box, length, quantum state, energy, kinetic, hydrogen atom, hydrogen molecule, covalent bond energy...]
The most important conclusion of this thorough and insightful study was that electron kinetic energy plays a crucial role in the formation of a chemical bond. Ruedenberg's contributions to the understanding of the chemical bond have been summarized in the pedagogical literature (7 - 12) and in review articles (13 - 15). There are also at least two encyclopedia entries which give accurate and clear interpretations of covalent bond formation (16, 17).
It is surprising that none of these efforts to make Ruedenberg's work accessible to the non-specialist have had any noticeable impact on the way chemical bonding is presented by the authors of chemistry textbooks currently used in the undergraduate curriculum. While physical chemistry texts avoid the errors cited above, they generally do not attempt to provide an "explanation" of the chemical bond. For example, after outlining the mathematical techniques required to solve Schr