The Nature of the Chemical Bond and the Structure of Molecules and Crystals; An Introduction to Modern Structural Chemistry.

by Linus Pauling

The Nature of the Chemical Bond provides a general treatment, essentially nonmathematical, of present (as of 1960) knowledge about the structure of molecules and crystals and the nature of the chemical bond. Among the new features in the third edition are a detailed resonating-valence-bond theory of electron-deficient substances, such as the boranes and ferrocene; a chemical theory of the electronic structure of metals and intermetallic compounds; a discussion of the role of the hydrogen bond in the structures of proteins and nucleic acids; the electroneutrality principle; and other new principles of molecular structure.

Genres: Science, Chemistry, Nonfiction, Academic, Physics

664 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1940

About the author

Linus Carl Pauling, Chemistry, Winner of multiple Nobel Prizes including 2 unshared awards

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A far cry from modern books on molecular quantum mechanics which (rightly) use actual physical tools to interpret bonding, this book's conceptual arguments and prose explanations nevertheless had a big influence on me when I cracked it open in grad school.

[Kaushal Jatakia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book on a whimsy when mentioned by my 10th grade chemistry teacher. i had scoured the street sellers in town for this book (1st edition).

[Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t think I had enough foundational knowledge about chemistry for this book. It has a lot of very high level chemistry concepts without any real build up to them. The book is very good at describing chemical structures and lists a lot of experimental data. It seems to be a good reference book and I read the abridged version of the book so that may explain why I felt it was lacking some in its explanations. I think to enjoy this book you really have to be in the thick of chemistry and know a lot about chemistry already. Once I read more foundational chemistry books I may give it a reread.

[Hooper Bring]

McLuhan cites this in “the Garbage Apocalypse” implying quantum mechanics makes us familiar with the audio-tactile environment.