= Multicentre bonding
<Multicentre bonding> describes a bonding interaction distributed over more than two atomic centers. A two-center localized electron-pair picture may then fail to represent how the occupied <molecular orbitals> stabilize the structure.
A standard example is a bridging hydrogen in <diborane>, where a <three-centre two-electron bond> extends across a boron-hydrogen-boron unit. The electron pair belongs to the whole three-center interaction, rather than to two independent ordinary bonds. This helps explain electron-deficient molecules without requiring each apparent atom-to-atom connection to contain its own pair of electrons.
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