SEMICLASSICAL ELECTRONEGATIVITY AND CHEMICAL HARDNESS

Abstract

The semiclassical path integral approach is undertaken to develop new definitions and atomic scales of electronegativity and chemical hardness. The considered quantum probability amplitude up to the fourth-order expansion provides intrinsic electronegativity and chemical hardness analytical expressions in terms of principal quantum number of the concerned valence shell and of the effective atomic charge including screening effects. The present electronegativity scale strikes on different orders of magnitude down groups of the periodic table, while still satisfying the main required acceptability criteria regarding the finite difference–based scale. The actual chemical hardness scale improves the trend across periods of the periodic system, avoiding the usual irregularities within the old-fashioned energetic picture. The current quest introduces the electronegativity of an element as the power by which the frontier electrons are attracted to the center of the atom being a stability measure of the atomic system as a whole.