BOND STABILIZATION BY CHARGE-TRANSFER - THE TRANSITION FROM VAN-DER-WAALS FORCES TO THE SIMPLEST CHEMICAL-BONDS

The passage from Van der Waals interactions to covalent one-electron b onds is documented along the series of monohalides and monoxides of th e fare gases: bond stabilizations due to open-shell interaction anisot ropies - as experimentally observed from molecular beam scattering of orbitally aligned oxygen and halogen atoms by rare gases and simple mo lecules - are shown to originate from an electron exchange effect. A s emi-empirical correlation rule for this effect is established and exte nded in order to include also excited states. ionic in nature (the exc imer states) and other (pseudo)-one-electron-bound systems, such as th e rare-gas dimer ions. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.