MATHEMATICAL INORGANIC-CHEMISTRY - FROM GAS-PHASE METAL-CLUSTERS TO SUPERCONDUCTING SOLIDS

The development of essentially all areas of theoretical chemistry has been highly dependent on diverse areas of mathematics. Examples cited by Prelog1 include the uses of calculus in chemical thermodynamics and kinetics, linear algebra in quantum chemical calculations, and group theory in molecular spectroscopy. The recognition of the importance of ideas from mathematics in the understanding of chemical phenomena has led to the recent emergence of the discipline of mathematical chemistry, which searches for new applications of mathematics to chemical problems. In many cases relevant areas of mathematics had been developed for several decades before recognition of their applications in chemistry. An interesting case is the ubiquitous wave equation2 proposed by Schradinger in 1926 based on spherical harmonics which already had been described in detail in an 1893 textbook.3. © 1992, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.