Rules establishing correspondence between the topology of a molecular structure and
the number of electrons which may be placed into its bonding molecular orbitals.
In the origin of various electron-counting rules lies a general assumption that the
completeness of the
valence electron shell of a molecular entity belonging to a certain structural type serves
as the major criterion of
structural stability.
Source:
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by
A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997).
XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic,
J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.
