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Article: Valence Bond Theory
- Article from:
- Chemistry: Foundations and Applications
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Valence Bond Theory
The valence bond (VB) theory of bonding was mainly developed by Walter Heitler and Fritz London in 1927, and later modified by Linus Pauling to take bond direction into account. The VB approach concentrates on forming bonds in localized orbitals between pairs of atoms, and hence retains the simple idea of Lewis structures and electron pairs. The wave function for the bonding electrons is described as the overlap of atomic orbitals. Thus, in the H
2
molecule, the spherical s orbitals of the two H atoms simply overlap, so that the electrons in the bond sense the nuclei of both atoms. This method also works well for simple molecules like H
2
O, CH
4
, and NH
3
. First the ...