Real-Space Interpretation of Interatomic Charge Transfer and Electron Exchange Effects by Combining Static and Kinetic Potentials and Associated Vector Fields

Intricate behavior of one-electron potentials from the Euler equation for electron density and corresponding gradient force fields in crystals was studied. Bosonic and fermionic quantum potentials were utilized in bonding analysis as descriptors of the localization of electrons and electron pairs. Channels of locally enhanced kinetic potential and the corresponding saddle Lagrange points were found between chemically bonded atoms linked by the bond paths. Superposition of electrostatic φ_es (r) and kinetic φ_k (r) potentials and electron density ρ(r) allowed partitioning any molecules and crystals into atomic ρ- and potential-based φ-basins; the φ_k-basins explicitly account for electron exchange effect, which is missed for φ_es-ones. Phenomena of interatomic charge transfer and related electron exchange were explained in terms of space gaps between ρ- and φ-zero-flux surfaces. The gap between φ_es- and ρ-basins represents the charge transfer, while the gap between φ_k- and ρ-basins is proposed to be a real-space manifestation of sharing the transferred electrons. The position of φ_k-boundary between φ_es- and ρ-ones within an electron occupier atom determines the extent of electron sharing. The stronger an H‧‧‧O hydrogen bond is, the deeper hydrogen atom’s φ_k-basin penetrates oxygen atom’s ρ-basin. For covalent bonds, a φ_k-boundary closely approaches a φ_es-one indicating almost complete sharing the transferred electrons, while for ionic bonds, the same region corresponds to electron pairing within the ρ-basin of an electron occupier atom.