Salzberg Chemistry Seminar

Speaker: Professor J.F. Ogilvie of el Escuela de Quimica, Universidad de Costa Rica & Centre for Experimental and Constructive Mathematics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada and Institute of Quantum Physics, Irkutsk National Research Technical University, Irkutsk, Russian Federation.

Topic: The Hydrogen Atom and Chemistry

Host: Professor John Lombardi

ABSTRACT: The hydrogen atom is important in chemistry not because hydrogen in atomic or plasma form comprises 93 per cent of atoms in the known universe but because this atom is a simple physical system amenable to calculations of which the results have become a paradigm in the description of many atoms and molecules of diverse structures. We recall the mathematical basis of the electronic structure of atoms and its qualitative application to treat the nature of chemical binding, such as involving hybrid atomic orbitals. The content of this presentation has profound implications for the teaching, learning and practice of chemistry at all levels.