title: Electronegativities of elements in covalent crystals.
abstract: A new electronegativity table of elements in covalent crystals with different bonding electrons and the most common coordination numbers is suggested on the basis of covalent potentials of atoms in crystals. For a given element, the electronegativity increases with increasing number of bonding electrons and decreases with increasing coordination number. Particularly, the ionicity of a covalent bond in different environments can be well-reflected by current electronegativity values; that is, the ionicity of chemical bonds increases as the coordination number of the bonded atoms increases. We show that this electronegativity scale can be successfully applied to predict the hardness of covalent and polar covalent crystals, which will be very useful for studying various chemical and physical properties of covalent materials.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, 158 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116012, P. R. China
authors.forename: Keyan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xingtao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Dongfeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xue