Gillespie-Nyholm concept

One of the goals of the ELF approach is to provide an interpretative tool of quantum chemical calculations in terms of purely chemical concepts without the recourse to the nature of the approximate wave functions. The ELF recovers many features of the simple chemical models based on a spatial distribution of the valence electron, namely, the valence theory of G. N. Lewis, the mesomery concept of C. K. Ingold, and the VSEPR model of R. J. Gillespie and R. S. Nyholm. The partition of the electron density based on a statistical criterion provides a quantum mechanical support to the hypotheses which are explicitly or implicitly assumed in these models. Indeed, this statistical approach provides at least formally a mathematical bridge between quantum mechanics and chemistry which enables to critically think about the content and the definition of many chemical concepts related to the... 

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