Bond strength between two atoms previously seemed to depend entirely on electronegativity, but Amsterdam researchers discovered that this is not always the case, according to a paper in Chemistry A European Journal.

Matthias Bickelhaupt’s group at the VU University Amsterdam has struck again (see also this earlier paradigm shift): the paradigm that a greater difference in electronegativity between two atoms results in a stronger chemical bond is not entirely true. Using quantum chemical analyses, Eva Blokker and colleagues have shown how and why the one trend fits the paradigm while the other does not.