title: On atom-atom 'short contact' bonding interactions in crystals.
abstract: Professor Dunitz questions the usefulness of ascribing crystalline structural stability to individual atom-atom intermolecular interactions viewed as bonding (hence stabilizing) whenever linked by a bond path. An alternative view is expressed in the present essay that articulates the validity and usefulness of the bond path concept in a crystallographic and crystal engineering context.
authors: Laboratoire de Cristallographie, Résonance Magnétique et Modélisations, UMR CNRS 7036, Institut Jean Barriol, Faculté des Sciences et Technologies, Université de Lorraine, BP 70239 , Boulevard des Aiguillettes 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy France.
authors: Claude
authors: C
authors: Lecomte
authors: Laboratoire de Cristallographie, Résonance Magnétique et Modélisations, UMR CNRS 7036, Institut Jean Barriol, Faculté des Sciences et Technologies, Université de Lorraine, BP 70239 , Boulevard des Aiguillettes 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy France.
authors: Enrique
authors: E
authors: Espinosa
authors: Laboratoire de Cristallographie, Résonance Magnétique et Modélisations, UMR CNRS 7036, Institut Jean Barriol, Faculté des Sciences et Technologies, Université de Lorraine, BP 70239 , Boulevard des Aiguillettes 54506 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy France ; Department of Chemistry and Physics, Mount Saint Vincent University , Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3M 2J6 Canada ; Department of Chemistry, Dalhousie University , Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 4J3, Canada ; Department of Chemistry, Saint Mary's University , Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 3C3, Canada.
authors: Cherif F
authors: CF
authors: Matta
keywords: bond paths in crystals; crystal binding; crystal stability; electron density; high-resolution X-ray diffraction; quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM); synthons