Chemical bonds are traditionally assigned as electron-sharing or donor-acceptor/dative. External criteria such as the nature of the dissociation process, energy partitioning schemes, or quantum chemical topology are invoked to assess the bonding situation. However, for systems with marked multi-reference character, this binary categorization might not be precise enough to render the bonding properties. A third scenario can be foreseen: spin polarized bonds. To illustrate this, the case of a NaBH3 - cluster is presented. According to the analysis NaBH3 - exhibits a strong diradical character and cannot be classified as either electron-sharing or a dative bond. Elaborated upon are the common problems of popular bonding descriptions. Additionally, a simple model, based on the bond order and local spin indicators, which discriminates between all three bonding situations, is provided.
Keywords: bond analysis; dative bonds; donor-acceptor systems; electronic structure; sodium.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.