A Conversation on New Types of Chemical Bonds

Abstract

This conversation tells a panoramic story on bonding motifs discovered and/pre-conceptualized by VB theory (VBT). Initially, the essay recounts how the authors discovered charge-shift bonding (CSB) which enriched the landscape of electron-pair bonding. This is followed by triplet-pair bonds (TPB), between pairs of electrons that possess identical spins. And finally, a story is told of new adventures in describing excited states and their bonding. This is also a tale of a wonderful and insightful theory, Valence Bond Theory, which is coming of age. This is all recounted as a conversation between three scientists who participated in this research, and are conversing here in a Socratic-Talmudic trialogue.