Measuring electron sharing between atoms in first-principle simulations

Calculations of large scale electronic structure within periodic boundary conditions, mostly based on solid state physics, allow the modeling of atomic forces and molecular dynamics for atomic assemblies of 100–1000 atoms, thus providing complementary information in material and macromolecular sciences. Nevertheless, these methods lack connections with the chemistry of simple molecules as isolated entities. In order to contribute to establish a conceptual connection between solid state physics and chemistry, the calculation of the extent of electron sharing between atoms, also known as delocalization index, is performed on simple molecules and on complexes with transition metal atoms, using density functional calculations where the Kohn–Sham molecular orbitals are represented in terms of plane waves and in periodic boundary conditions. These applications show that the useful measure of electron sharing between atomic pairs can be recovered from density functional calculations using the same set-up applied to large atomic assemblies in condensed phases, with no projections of molecular orbitals onto atomic orbitals.