VINICIUS TOSCANO ARAUJO

The present project intends to study the concepts and ideas about the nature of the chemical bond, passing through theories, as the Molecular Orbital and the Valence Bond Theory, and models, like the probability density models based on molecular orbitals or the structural molecular model of Lewis, in perspective of the philosophy of science. The work will be focus on a philosophical method of analysis to study academical sources about the concepts of chemical bond, but also will analyze the work of R. S. Mulliken, maybe the main developer of the Molecular Orbital Theory. The author, winner of the Nobel Prize, was in the center of the discussion about the view of the chemists and even of physicists about how the atoms interact and form stable bonds with each other, now under the advent of the quantum mechanics. Therefore, it is of great gain to analyze his work, which can show us how the scientists of his time understood the questions to be analyzed in this project. The project sees the chemical bond concept in the epistemological centrality of the chemical practice and research, and therefore sees that it is important to analyze this concept to comprehend clearly the ideas and the