1854 J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1991, 113, 1854-1855 groups at the ambient side of the monolayer. A pictorial structure of an isolated adsorbate molecule that incorporates features consistent with our data is given in Figure 3. Recent measure- ments on a monolayer consisting of a diacid with a (CD2)6 segment at the center of the chain demonstrate that the fold must consist of at least six methylene groups.28 These experiments, additional ones involving more complex folded molecular structures, and further characterization of the ordering in such structures will be reported in detail in future publications. Acknowledgment. Support from the National Science Foun- dation [DMR 900-1270 (D.L.A.) and DMR 87-01586 (R.G.S.)] and the Natioinal Institutes of Health [GM 27690 (R.G.S.)] is gratefully acknowledged. Registry No. Ag, 7440-22-4; HO2C(CH2)30CO2H, 14604-28-5. Principle of Maximum Hardness Robert G. Parr* and Pratim K. Chattaraj* Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599 Received September 11, 1990 From his considerable experience with the concepts of chemical hardness and softness, in 1987 Ralph Pearson concluded that “there seems to be a rule of nature that molecules arrange themselves so as to be as hard as possible.”* 1 Subsequent studies of particular problems support this principle and imply that its validity may require conditions of constant temperature and chemical potential.2 Following is a formal proof of the principle, as so modified. Absolute hardness and absolute softness S, of the equilibrium state of an electronic system at temperature T, are defined by where µ is the electronic chemical potential (constant through the system),3 N is the number of electrons, and v(r) is the potential acting on an electron at r due to the nuclear attraction plus such other external forces as may be present. These definitions are the finite-temperature extensions of the ground-state definitions of these quantities.4"6 The chemical potential is the Lagrange multiplier for the normalization constraint in the finite-temperature density-functional theory.6,7 It also is the negative of the absolute electronegativity.3 In terms of the Helmholtz free energy, µ = {dA/dN)^,)j. Note that u(r) constant implies total volume constant. Imagine a grand canonical ensemble consisting of a large number of perfect replicas of a particular electronic system of interest, in equilibrium with a bath at temperature T and chemical potential µ, with the bath also controlling v(i). The members of the ensemble may exchange energy and electrons with each other. Equilibrium averages being denoted with brackets, N will fluctuate about (N). The equilibrium softness is given by5 Permanent address: Department of Chemistry, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, 721 302, India. (1) Pearson, R. G. J. Chem. Educ. 1987, 64, 561-567. (2) (a) Zhou, Z.; Parr, R. G.; Garst, J. F. Tetrahedron Lett. 1988, 29, 4843-4846. (b) Zhou, Z.; Parr, R. G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1989, 111, 7371-7379. (c) Zhou, Z.; Parr, R. G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1990, 112, 5720-5724. (3) Parr, R. G.; Donnelly, R. A.; Levy, M.; Palke, W. E. J. Chem. Phys. 1978, 68, 3801-3807. (4) Parr, R, G.; Pearson, R. G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1983, 105, 7512-7516. (5) Yang, W.; Parr, R. G. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 1985, 82, 6723-6726. (6) Parr, R. G.; Yang, W. Density-Functional Theory of Atoms and Molecules; Oxford: New York, 1989. (7) Mermin, N. D. Phys. Rev. 1965, 137, A1441-A1443. [d(N) 1 -3— =ß(( - </V»2> (2) Jvtrl.r where ß = 1 /kT. Or, <5> = ß °» - <7V»2 (3) N,i where n,, = (1/2) exp[-/?(£M· - TVM)] (4) and 2 = LexpHtFw - µ)] (5) N,i a is the grand partition function. The probabilities F%j define the equilibrium distribution. They are functions of the parameters that characterize the ensemble: ß, µ, and y(r); dependence on u(r) comes through the fact that the Em depend on u(r). Now consider the countless other, nonequilibrium ensembles of the same system of interest, at temperature T but characterized by probabilities PNi different from the canonical probabilities P°Nj. An average in any such ensemble may be denoted with overbars, as for example S = ß ,/ ,/ 7- ( 7))2. Consider only those of these nonequilibrium ensembles that can be generated as equilibrium ensembles by changing the bath parameters µ and y(r), by small amounts. For any one of these, it will be shown that 5 - (5) = ß ( - (N)HPn¡í - P%,,) > 0 (6) N,i Consequently, among all these states, the equilibrium state may be characterized as having minimum softness. Proof of eq 6 follows from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem of statistical mechanics.8 For simplicity employing classical statistical mechanics, let the equilibrium probability distribution function for the system of interest, with grand potential ^, 7'7) = H(rN,pN) - µ , be /(r7V,p7V) (corresponding to P°NJ) and let the corresponding arbitrary nearby distribution be F(rN,pN) (corre- sponding to PNf). Then the physical perturbation ( 7 , ) generating F at time t = 0 must satisfy F(r7V,p7V) (-ß ) ( (-0 )> /( p") (7) = (A)-1 A(rfp")/(rfp") (8) where CA(rN,pN) = (-/3 ) and = In [C4(r",p")] (9) f(rN,pN) and (A) are independent of time, and C is a positive constant serving the purpose of a field component of the per- turbation which couples with A; other quantities depend on time. Equation 8 shows that the conditions are satisfied for Exercise 8.3, p 242, of ref 8. Accordingly, it follows that (A)[A(t) - (A)] = <(A(0) - (A))(A(t) - (A))) (10) and A(0)-(A) = ( )- ( {0) - (A))2) (11) Here A{t) is the average of A(t) for the nonequilibrium distribution F. Now take A to be the observable that is the softness, A = ß( - (TV))2 (12) Since this {A) is positive, eq 11 implies 5(0) - (5) >0 (13) which is the inequality of eq 6. (8) Chandler, D. Introduction to Modern Statistical Mechanics; Oxford: New York, 1987; Chapter 8. 0002-7863/91 /1513-1854S02.50/0 &copy; 1991 American Chemical Society Downloaded via NATL TSING HUA UNIV on July 15, 2020 at 07:16:57 (UTC). See https://pubs.acs.org/sharingguidelines for options on how to legitimately share published articles.