A Critique of Pauli Repulsions and Molecular Geometry

A theoretical method, which allows one to determine the effect of the Pauli exclusion principle on the electron density distribution, is used to test the concepts underlying the electron pair repulsion theory of molecular geometry. It is shown that pictures of overlapping orbitals frequently do not correspond to the actual effect which the Pauli principle has on the three-dimensional charge density. An alternative electrostatic approach, involving the concept of a binding region for a polyatomic molecule, is proposed to account for the observed molecular geometries.