Bent's rule
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Bent's rule, which concerns orbital hybridisation of chemical bonds, was stated in 1961 by the American chemist Henry Bent [1]. Originally, it was expressed as follows:
- Atomic s character concentrates in orbitals directed toward electropositive subsituents
In other words, more understandable in terms of p-character of hybridized bonds:
- A central atom tends to direct hybrids of higher p character toward more electronegative substituents
[1] H.A. Bent, Chem. Rev. 61 (1961), 275
