| Abstract: | Application of the power series for the one‐electron density matrix 36 to the case of two interacting molecules is shown to yield a semilocalized approach to investigate chemical reactivity, which is characterized by the following distinctive features: (1) Electron density (ED) redistributions embracing orbitals of the reaction centers of both molecules and of their neighboring fragments are studied instead of the total intermolecular interaction energy; (2) the ED redistributions are expressed directly in the basis of fragmental orbitals (FOs) without passing to the basis of delocalized molecular orbitals (MOs) of initial molecules; (3) terms describing the ED redistributions due to an intermolecular contact arise as additive corrections to the purely monomolecular terms and thereby may be analyzed independently; (4) local ED redistributions only between orbitals of the reaction centers of both molecules are described by lower‐order terms of the power series, whereas those embracing both the reaction centers and their neighborhoods are represented by higher‐order terms. As opposed to the standard perturbative methods based on invoking the delocalized (canonical) MOs of isolated molecules, the results of the approach suggested are in‐line with the well‐known intuition‐based concepts of the classic chemistry concerning reactivity, namely, with the assumption about different roles of the reaction center and of its neighborhood in a chemical process, with the expectation about extinction of the indirect influence of a certain fragment (substituent) when its distance from the reaction center grows, etc. Such a parallelism yields quantum chemical analogs for the classic concepts and thereby gives an additional insight into their nature. The scope of validity of these concepts also is discussed. Applicability of the approach suggested to specific chemical problems is illustrated by a brief consideration of the SN2 and AdE2 reactions. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem 94: 302–316, 2003 |
