Electron scattering by closed shell diatomic molecules

Abstract

G.N. Lewis was North America's leading “physical chemist” when he warned physicists that their most recent theoretical proposals—particularly the Bohr theory of the atom — would not suffice as a conceptual or causal foundation for chemistry. In so far as the philosophy of chemistry is born out of that troubling dependence upon physics which is never quite enough to confirm chemistry's “reduction” to physics, Lewis could well be considered the founding voice of the philosophy of chemistry. He was also interested in advancing valence theory by drawing upon decades of experience in organic chemistry which relied increasingly on structural differences. His early models of cubic atoms led to a more mature theory of molecular structure based on the idea of shared pairs of electrons. In this he was attempting to reconcile two needs inherited from 19th century chemistry — energetic stability, but cast in a manner which provided for stable molecular structure. Lewis, as a physicist, was also well aware of early developments we’ve come to call Quantum Theory, but his most outspoken concerns for what impact this might have on chemistry from 1916 and 1923 preceded the mathematical developments of both Schr dinger and Heisenberg.