Bartosz Milewski on Nostr: "True" chemical bond is the result of a (crude) approximation, and as such it has its ...

"True" chemical bond is the result of a (crude) approximation, and as such it has its limitations.

For instance, we assume that the outer electron shell of the carbon atom has four lobes forming a tetrahedron (that's what the black blobs with four holes represent). It's a result of the hybridization of the S and P orbitals, which is an approximate solution of the Schroedinger equation.

Next we assume that when atoms form compounds, they essentially keep the shapes of their orbitals. This is the basis of stick models. Again, it's a crude approximation.

Theoretically, we could just solve the Schroedinger equation for all the electrons and nuclei and be done with it--no orbitals, no hybridization, no sticks. Just one glorious n-electron wave function. Since we can't do it, we use the crutches of valence, stick models, Hartree-Fock approximations, etc.