August 26, 1936
Dr. S.C. Stanford
c/o Mrs. B. Newhall
Gambier, Ohio
The discussion given by Sidgwick of the hydrogen bond is still accepted in general, the only change which has been made in recent years being that the bond is now not described as involving hydrogen simultaneously forming two electron pair bonds with other atoms. From the large amount of information available on vapor densities, apparent molecular weights in solution, and so on, it is seen that the stability of alcohol hydrogen bonds is small compared with that of carboxylic acid hydrogen bonds. The bonds in alcohols are, however, strong enough to make themselves evident in the boiling points, dielectric constants, and other properties. Some direct evidence for hydrogen bond formation by alcohols was obtained by Zacchariason with the use of x-ray methods (J. Chem. Phys. 3, 158 (1935) ). You may have seen also the work of Wulf and his collaborators and a note which I wrote about this. I am enclosing a reprint of my paper.
Sincerely yours,
Linus Pauling
LP:ml
August
26, 1936
