The Phantom Atom Approach: An extension of the revised Lewis–Langmuir atomic charge equation to the treatment of anions

Abstract A Phantom Atom Approach is introduced to calculate the atomic charges of atoms in anions using the revised Lewis–Langmuir atomic charge equation. When applied to anions, this approach yields atomic charges that are intuitively more acceptable, and which more closely correspond to those obtained by ab initio methods, than results previously obtained.