Selected Papers of Robert S. Mulliken

Book excerpt: This book brings together in one volume the most important papers of Robert S. Mulliken, who was awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his seminal work on chemical bonds and the electronic structures of molecules. The papers collected here range from suggestive to closely detailed analyses of various topics in the theory of spectra and electronic structure of diatomic and polyatomic molecules. Professor Mulliken has written introductory commentaries on each of the volume's seven parts. Included in the volume are essays of general as well as scientific interest; they are grouped under thematic headings. Part I contains those papers which are of historical significance. An autobiographical piece by Dr. Mulliken offers a glimpse of the many famous people whom he has known. Also reprinted is the text of his Nobel Prize acceptance speech. At the end is a list of his students and other co-workers, and a complete bibliography of his papers. Part II includes Mulliken's work on band spectra and chemistry as well as his research on the assignment of quantum numbers for electrons in molecules. Part III surveys the author's early work on the bonding power of electrons and the method of molecular orbitals. Included is a discussion of the structure and spectra of a number of important types of molecules. The papers in part IV focus on the intensities of electronic transitions in molecular spectra. This incorporates Mulliken's work on charge transfer and the halogen molecule spectra. The problems addressed in part V center on the spectra and structure of polyatomic molecules. Reprinted here is a report which Mulliken prepared on notation for polyatomic molecules. Part VI is devoted to the problem of hyperconjugation. These papers develop and apply the concept of hyperconjugation and explore its relation to the concept of conjugation. The last part offers some of the most important papers from the author's postwar publications. The central focus is on molecular orbital theory, the area in which Mulliken's Nobel-winning discoveries were made.