Pavel Hobza and Pavel Jelínek described the observation of sigma holes for Science

Pavel Hobza, chemist and emeritus chair of the Neuron Foundation's scientific council, has published the results of his work in the journal Science together with Pavel Jelínek, the foundation's guarantor for physics.

A research team from Prague and Olomouc has for the first time observed the uneven distribution of electron charge on an atom. These are so-called sigma holes, which create a positive charge on a halogen atom. Thanks to it, substances bind to each other that in theory should not, such as chlorine with nitrogen or oxygen. In the course of their research the scientists also improved force microscopy and so obtained the first image of a sigma hole.

"I have worked on non-covalent interactions all my life, and it is a vindication for me that we can now observe what we have so far only 'seen' in theory, and that the experimental measurements confirm our theoretical predictions of the existence and shape of the sigma hole absolutely precisely. That will allow us to understand and interpret these interactions better," says Pavel Hobza.

"Confirming the existence of theoretically predicted sigma holes is a similar situation to observing black holes, whose existence was predicted in 1915 by the general theory of relativity but which were first seen only two years ago. From that point of view, imaging a sigma hole represents, with some exaggeration, a similar milestone at the atomic level," Pavel Jelínek explains.

Congratulations on another international success for Czech science; congratulations to Pavel Hobza and Pavel Jelínek and their colleagues from the IOCB and the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The paper published in the journal Science: https://bit.ly/3oMZVkT

Pavel Jelínek's article on the Institute of Physics website: https://bit.ly/3cbsi6a