Preliminary study on the charge transfer and bond ionicity of binary crystals

Charge transfer and bond ionicity of some monovalent, divalent, and trivalent binary crystals of A(N)B(8-N) type have been investigated using the self-consistent method. The method divides the binary crystal systems into two subsystems which contain only one kind of element each in physical space. The charge transfer values are obtained by adjusting the charge in a self-consistent way. Based on the obtained charge transfer values, an empirical formula for bond ionicity has been proposed. It has been shown that the present results for bond ionicity are in good agreement with the previous theoretical study delivered by Levine and Pauling. The results also indicate that a large magnitude of charge transfer (or less excess charge in the bonding region) gives rise to high bond ionicity (or low bond covalency); this agrees well with the viewpoint that the excess charge in the bonding region is the origin of the formation of bond covalency. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(98)00837-X].