Properties of atoms in molecules: Caged atoms and the Ehrenfest force

This paper uses the properties of atom X enclosed within an adamantane cage, denoted by X@C(10)H(16), as a vehicle to introduce the Ehrenfest force into the discussion of bonding, the properties being determined by the physics of an open system. This is the force acting on an atom in a molecule and determining the potential energy appearing in Slater's molecular virial theorem. The Ehrenfest force acting across the interatomic surface of a bonded pair atoms-atoms linked by a bond path-is attractive, each atom being drawn toward the other, and the associated surface virial that measures the contribution to the energy arising from the formation of the surface is stabilizing. It is the Ehrenfest force that determines the adhesive properties of surfaces. The endothermicity of formation for X = He or Ne is not a result of instabilities incurred in the interaction of X with the four methine carbons to which it is bonded, interactions that are stabilizing both in terms of the changes in the atomic energies and in the surface virials. The exothermicity for X = Be(2+), B(3+), and Al(3+) is a consequence of the transfer of electron density from the hydrogen atoms to the carbon and X atoms, the exothermicity increasing with charge transfer despite an increase in the contained volume of X.