Pressure used to define relationship between atomic radii and electronegativity

Researchers in Sweden and Italy have derived an equation that illustrates how van der Waals radii and electronegativity relate to each other as a function of pressure. ‘This connection has been implied for a very long time; it’s very intuitive in a way. If electrons are closer to a nucleus they are more bound and the atom is both smaller and more electronegative,’ says Martin Rahm of Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, who led the study.