When atoms are put together to form a three-dimensional substance, the properties of the substance are governed by how quantum clouds of electrons, the orbitals, move around and interact with each ...

This may arise when atoms' electron clouds overlap significantly, he said. "They touch when the electron orbitals of one atom overlap enough with the electron orbitals of the other atom that ...

"When carbon forms bonds with surrounding atoms, it reconstructs its electron cloud to create hybridized orbitals. In this case, the outermost L-shell electrons have nodes based on their wave ...