Electronegativity Studies Towards New Materials: From a Chemistry Concept to Physics Models

Electronegativity (EN) is an old concept defined by chemist Pauling as "the power of an atom in a molecule to attract electrons to itself" in 1932. Through eighty years, EN has been well developed from an intuitive idea to a deeply understood concept, with many useful physics models established based on it due to the intrinsic correlations between EN and the physical properties. These physics models are quite useful to predict the physical properties of materials, and thus provide guidance for the design and development of novel materials. In this review, we give an introduction of representative EN scales from the viewpoints of energy, force, electron density and potential, and some important physics models related to work function, Schottky barrier height, band gap, hardness and bulk modulus.