The Molecular Structure Concept

STRUCTURE AND STRUCTURAL STABILITY A. The Molecular Structure Concept 

The finding that the charge distribution contains the information required to define a molecular graph for every geometrical arrangement of the nuclei allows for much more than a pedestrian recovery of the notion of structure as a set of atoms linked by a 

---

Twenty years have passed since the publication of the original paper by Woolley [3] in which the incompatibility of the molecular structure concept with the rigorous quantum-mechanical description of isolated molecules has been eloquently brought to the attention of chemists. The ensuing flurry of research publications clarified several misconceptions but did little to familiarize the broader scientific audience with this important issue. Regretfully, few quantum or computational chemists are aware of these papers, which are nowadays seldom discussed or quoted. 

---