Two-Center Two-Electron Covalent Bonds with Deficient Bonding Densities

Electron-deficient covalent bonds are a type of covalent bonds without electron accumulation at their bonding regions. Compared with normal covalent bonds, they are quite sensitive to chemical environments. Electron-deficient and normal covalent bonds are not isolated from each other. An electron-deficient bond may change to a normal one upon the change of substituting groups. Neither bond elongation nor atom electronegativity is directly related to the electron deficiency in an electron-deficient bond. Atoms in molecules (AIM) analyses suggest that electron-deficient bonds are characterized by positive Laplacians and small rho(BCP) values. The positive Laplacian is caused by insignificant electron accumulation perpendicular to the bond path. On the basis of electron localization function (ELF) descriptors, electron-deficient bonds have small basin populations, low eta values and high relative fluctuations. There may be one or two bond basins for an electron-deficient bond. In addition, such a bond may correlate with two more valence basins close to the two participating atoms. Electron-deficient bonds are usually weak and long. This is consistent with the low s characters in their natural bond orbitals (NBOs).