Coherence of the Even-Odd Rule with an Effective-Valence Isoelectronicity Rule for Chemical Structural Formulas: Application to Known and Unknown Single-Covalent-Bonded Compounds

Abstract

Ions or molecules are said to be isoelectronic if they are composed of different elements but have the same number of electrons, the same number of covalent bonds and the same structure. This criterion is unfortunately not sufficient to ensure that a chemical structure is a valid chemical compound. In a previous article, a procedure has been described to draw 2D valid structural formulas: the even-odd rule. This rule has been applied first to single-bonded molecules then to single-charged single-bonded ions. It covers hypovalent, hypervalent or classic Lewis’ octet compounds. The funding principle of the even-odd rule is that each atom of the compound possesses an outer-shell filled only with pairs of electrons. The application of this rule guarantees validity of any single-covalent-bond chemical structure. In the present paper, this even-odd rule and its electron-pair criterion are checked for coherence with an effective-valence isoelectronic rule using numerous known compounds having single-covalent-bond connections. The test addresses Lewis’ octet ions or molecules as well as hypovalent and hypervalent compounds. The article concludes that the even-odd rule and the effective-valence isoelectronicity rule are coherent for known single-covalent-bond chemical compounds.