Letter from the Guest Editor – Rationale for
the special issue on
“The Chemical Bond and Bonding”
Dear
Colleague,
You may have noticed that 90 years have passed since the publication of the cornerstone and perplexing paper of Gilbert Newton Lewis (entitled The Atom and the Molecule, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1916, 38, 762) from where the quantum chemistry begins it own quest for the elucidation of the nature of chemical bond and bonding. This is the historical argument, a celebration year for chemical bonding, a moment of re-thinking about it.
An
epistemological argument can be also formulated. As physical sciences seek the
Grand Unifications of the existing Forces in Nature, a similar endeavor seems
appropriate in Chemistry as well, since all manifest modes of bonding may be
seen as facets of a basic chemical bonding content of different degrees of
action, in different contexts and environments.
Then, recently, many exotic chemical situations have been reported, such as sextupole bonds, nano- and bio-molecules and aggregates that need both conceptual and computational explanations. The increased need of molecular design for assessing biotargets through pharmacophores, the practical demands of predictions of acute toxicity of medicines and environmental waste compounds, all these actual realities of chemistry in both its principles and applications deserve a special forum.
For all
these reasons I strongly believe that a special IJMS issue dedicated to
CHEMICAL BOND AND BONDING would be highly appreciated by both theorists and
experimentalists exploring the chemical state (for the BOND appellative) and
reactivity (for the BONDING one).
On a
personal ground I am fully engaged in scientific projects concerning
unification of chemical bonding modes through quantum principles and indices.
In this respect I bring to your attention my recent invited book chapter
“Unifying absolute and chemical electronegativity and hardness density functional
formulations through the chemical action concept”, in “Progress in Quantum
Chemistry Research”; Erik O. Hoffman (ed.); Nova Publishers: New York, 2007
(in press); (www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=5571) as well my
invited expert commentary: “Can quantum-mechanical description of chemical bond
be considered complete?”, in “Quantum Chemistry Research Trends”, Mikas
P. Kaisas (ed.); Nova Publishers: New York 2007 (in press);
Therefore,
in order to create a high quality platform for communication on the topic, I
invite you to actively contribute to the special issue on “The Chemical Bond
and Bonding”. As Guest Editor I am ready to examine in-depth all papers submitted
for this volume and to provide my remarks to improve them for best
publication.
Kind regards,
Dr. Mihai V. Putz