Electronic structure of CO - An exercise in modern chemical bonding theory

This paper discusses recent progress that has been made in the understanding of the electronic structure and bonding situation of carbon monoxide which was analyzed using modern quantum chemical methods. The new results are compared with standard models of chemical bonding. The electronic charge distribution and the dipole moment, the nature of the HOMO and the bond dissociation energy are discussed in detail. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.