Valence electron density

Valence electron density for the diamond structures of carbon and silicon. (Figure redrawn from Cohen M L i. Predicting New Solids and Superconductors. Science 234 549-553.)... 

In addition to dielectric property determinations, one also can measure valence electron densities from the low-loss spectrum. Using the simple free electron model one can show that the bulk plasmon energy E is governed by the equation ... 

In an effort to better understand the differences observed upon substitution in carvone possible changes in valence electron density produced by inductive effects, and so on, were investigated [38, 52]. A particularly pertinent way to probe for this in the case of core ionizations is by examining shifts in the core electron-binding energies (CEBEs). These respond directly to increase or decrease in valence electron density at the relevant site. The CEBEs were therefore calculated for the C=0 C 1 orbital, and also the asymmetric carbon atom, using Chong s AEa s method [75-77] with a relativistic correction [78]. 

KT1 does not have the NaTl structure because the K+ ions are too large to fit into the interstices of the diamond-like Tl- framework. It is a cluster compound K6T16 with distorted octahedral Tig- ions. A Tig- ion could be formulated as an electron precise octahedral cluster, with 24 skeleton electrons and four 2c2e bonds per octahedron vertex. The thallium atoms then would have no lone electron pairs, the outside of the octahedron would have nearly no valence electron density, and there would be no reason for the distortion of the octahedron. Taken as a closo cluster with one lone electron pair per T1 atom, it should have two more electrons. If we assume bonding as in the B6Hg- ion (Fig. 13.11), but occupy the t2g orbitals with only four instead of six electrons, we can understand the observed compression of the octahedra as a Jahn-Teller distortion. Clusters of this kind, that have less electrons than expected according to the Wade rules, are known with gallium, indium and thallium. They are called hypoelectronic clusters their skeleton electron numbers often are 2n or 2n — 4. 

With data averaged in point group m, the first refinements were carried out to estimate the atomic coordinates and anisotropic thermal motion parameters IP s. We have started with the atomic coordinates and equivalent isotropic thermal parameters of Joswig et al. [14] determined by neutron diffraction at room temperature. The high order X-ray data (0.9 < s < 1.28A-1) were used in this case in order not to alter these parameters by the valence electron density contributing to low order structure factors. Hydrogen atoms of the water molecules were refined isotropically with all data and the distance O-H were kept fixed at 0.95 A until the end of the multipolar refinement. The inspection of the residual Fourier maps has revealed anharmonic thermal motion features around the Ca2+ cation. Therefore, the coefficients up to order 6 of the Gram-Charlier expansion [15] were refined for the calcium cation in the scolecite. 

With respect to the thermodynamic stability of metal clusters, there is a plethora of results which support the spherical Jellium model for the alkalis as well as for other metals, like copper. This appears to be the case for cluster reactivity, at least for etching reactions, where electronic structure dominates reactivity and minor anomalies are attributable to geometric influence. These cases, however, illustrate a situation where significant addition or diminution of valence electron density occurs via loss or gain of metal atoms. A small molecule, like carbon monoxide,... 

Since hardness and the shear modulus are usually proportional, the factors that determine the shear moduli need to be understood. The shear moduli are functions of the local polarizability and this depends on the valence electron density, as well as the energy needed to promote a valence electron to its first excited state. The latter depends on the strength of the chemical bond between two atoms. This will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 3. 

Figure 6.1 Bulk Modulus vs. Valence Electron Density (sp—bonded metals).

Since these structures are formed by filling the open spaces in the diamond and wurtzite structures, they have high atomic densities. This implies high valence electron densities and therefore considerable stability which is manifested by high melting points and elastic stiffnesses. They behave more like metal-metalloid compounds than like pure metals. That is, like covalent compounds embedded in metals. 

Indentation data for the sulfides could not be found in the literature. However, Mohs scratch hardness numbers were found (Winkler, 1955). They were converted to Vickers numbers using a correlation chart. The hardnesses are shown in Figure 9.10. Since they all have the same number of valence electrons, this is the same as plotting the hardnesses versus the valence electron densities. 

The structures of the prototype borides, carbides, and nitrides yield high values for the valence electron densities of these compounds. This accounts for their high elastic stiffnesses, and hardnesses. As a first approximation, they may be considered to be metals with extra valence electrons (from the metalloids) that increase their average valence electron densities. The evidence for this is that their bulk modili fall on the same correlation line (B versus VED) as the simple metals. This correlation line is given in Gilman (2003). 

The carbides with the NaCl structure may be considered to consist of alternating layers of metal atoms and layers of semiconductor atoms where the planes are octahedral ones of the cubic symmetry system. (Figure 10.1). In TiC, for example, the carbon atoms lie 3.06A apart which is about twice the covalent bond length of 1.54 A, so the carbon atoms are not covalently bonded, but they may transfer some charge to the metal layers, and they do increase the valence electron density. 

Entropy versus temperature data give values for 0S, so values for g can be obtained from Equation 10.3. These values depend on valence electron densities just as the elastic stiffnesses do. 

The mechanical behavior of TiB2 is characterized by its lattice parameters, valence electron density, elasticity tensor, plasmon tensor, and its heat of... 

The dependence of hardness on the valence electron densities is illustrated by Figure 11.7. 

Figure 11.12 Dependence of the hardnesses of titanium carbide, nitride, and oxide on their valence electron densities (VEDs).

Three of these compounds have cubic symmetry, while T1B2 has hexagonal symmetry. Since they are metallic, bond moduli cannot be defined for them, but valence electron densities can be. The hardnesses of the cubic titanium compounds depend linearly on their VEDs the numbers of valence electrons are (4 + 4 = 8)TiC, (4 + 3 = 7)TiN, and (4 + 2 = 6)TiO. The linear dependence is shown in Figure 11.10. A similar linear dependence on their C44s is also found (Figure 11.12). 

The formal definition of the electronic chemical hardness is that it is the derivative of the electronic chemical potential (i.e., the internal energy) with respect to the number of valence electrons (Atkins, 1991). The electronic chemical potential itself is the change in total energy of a molecule with a change of the number of valence electrons. Since the elastic moduli depend on valence electron densities, it might be expected that they would also depend on chemical hardness densities (energy/volume). This is indeed the case. 

It is interesting that all of these crystals except diamond are boron compounds. Note also, that most of them consist exclusively of relatively small atoms. The exception is ReB2. Since Re has a large number of valence electrons the general rule is followed that high hardness is associated with high VED (valence electron density). 

The value of the Fermi energy tp corresponding to the valence electron density in metals is of the order of a few eV. 

The factors that affect the energetics of solid solutions and indirectly solid solubility are to a large extent the same as those that control the enthalpy of formation of compounds. Most often the differences between the atomic radii of the participating elements, in electronegativity and in valence electron density are considered for solutions of elements. For solid solutions of binary compounds, similar factors are used, but some measure of the volume of the compounds is often used instead of atomic radii. 

The real potential, a , of electrons in metals, as shown in Eqn. 2-4, comprises the electrostatic surface term, - ex, due to the surface dipole and the chemical potential term, M., determined by the bulk property of metal crystals. In general, the electrostatic surface term is greater the greater the valence electron density in metals whereas, the chemical potential term becomes greater the lower the valence electron density in metals. 

Figure 2-11 compares the observed work function, 4>, with that calculated based on the jeUium model as a function of the electron density, n.,in metals here, n, is represented in terms of the Wigner-Seitz radius which is inversely proportional to the cube root of n.. The chemical potential term (p. = —1.5 to-2.5 eV) predominates in the work function of metals of low valence electron density, while on the contrary the surface term (- e x = -0-1 -5.0 eV) predominates for... 

The correlation energy is known analytically in the high-and low-density limits. For typical valence electron densities (1 < r, < 10) and lower densities (r, > 10), it is known numerically from release-node Diffusion Monte Carlo studies [33]. Various parametrizations have been developed to interpolate between the known limits while fitting the Monte Carlo data. The first, simplest and most transparent is that of Perdew and Zunger (PZ) [34] ... 

Several formulations were proposed [65, 66], but the intuitive notation introduced by Hansen and Coppens [67] afterwards became the most popular. Within this method, the electron density of a crystal is expanded in atomic contributions. The expansion is better understood in terms of rigid pseudoatoms, i.e., atoms that behave stmcturally according to their electron charge distribution and rigidly follow the nuclear motion. A pseudoatom density is expanded according to its electronic stiucture, for simplicity reduced to the core and the valence electron densities (but in principle each atomic shell could be independently refined). Thus,... 

For the heavier elements of the Periodic Table, say the third transition series and the actinoids, the approximation that spin—orbit coupling is so small it can be treated as a perturbation on free-ion terms fails. Spin-orbit coupling rises rapidly with nuclear charge while interelectronic repulsion terms decrease with the diffuseness of the valence electron density of larger atoms. 

Since difference electron densities, deformation densities or valence electron densities are not observable quantities, and since the Hohenberg-Kohn theorem64 applies only to the total electron density, much work has concentrated on the analysis of p(r). The accepted analysis method today is the virial partitioning method by Bader and coworkers67, which is based on a quantum mechanically well-founded partitioning of the molecular... 

The derivation of the pseudopotentials discussed above has been developed from equation (12), in which the effect of core projection operators on the valence-valence electron repulsion has been neglected. The error introduced by this approximation can be largely removed by adding to the core repulsion operators the repulsion from the difference in valence electron density in the reference atoms between the all-electron and valence-electron calculations 33... 

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