Chemical bonds involve sharing electrons between only two atoms rather than three
Chemical bonds are not restricted to two-center interactions; multicenter bonds involving three or more atoms are well-established in chemistry.
The claim states that chemical bonds involve sharing electrons between only two atoms rather than three. However, extensive chemical literature establishes the existence of multicenter bonds (such as three-center two-electron or three-center four-electron bonds) where electrons are shared among three or more atoms. Retrieved papers [0], [6], and [9] explicitly discuss multicenter bonding models and systems, directly refuting the claim.
K. E. Banyard, A. D. Tait. Quantum-Mechanical Study of Some Three-Center Two-Electron Systems. II. A Natural-Orbital, Electron-Population, and Energy Analysis. 1968. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1670548
Paper [0] analyzes three-center two-electron systems such as H3+, demonstrating that chemical bonds can involve more than two atoms.
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Manjón FJ, Osman HH, Lobato Á, Izquierdo-Ruiz F, Bandiello E, Gallego-Parra S, Vegas Á, Savastano M, Muñoz A. Introduction and Extension of the Unified Theory of Multicenter Bonding: The Role of the Charge-Shift Bonding.. 2025. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules31010082
Paper [6] explicitly discusses multicenter bonds, including electron-deficient and electron-rich multicenter bonds that span more than two atoms.
Ding L, Matito E, Schilling C. Chemical bonding concepts emerge naturally from maximally entangled atomic orbitals.. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-73527-w
Paper [9] shows that quantum-mechanical orbital entanglement recovers both standard two-center Lewis structures and beyond-Lewis multicenter structures.
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