Henry A. Bent

{{Short description|Physical chemist}}

{{Infobox scientist

|name= Henry A. Bent

|birth_date= {{Birth date|1926|12|21}}

|birth_place= Cambridge, Massachusetts

|death_date= {{Death date and age|2015|1|3|1926|12|21}}

|death_place= Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

|alma_mater= University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D. 1952)

|work_institutions =

University of Connecticut

University of Minnesota (1958-69)

North Carolina State University, Raleigh (1969-89)

University of Pittsburgh (1989-92)

|prizes =

George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education (1980)

}}

Henry A. Bent (December 21, 1926 – January 3, 2015){{cite web |title=In memoriam: Professor Henry Albert Bent |url=https://cse.umn.edu/college/feature-stories/memoriam-henry-albert-bent |website=College of Science and Engineering |publisher=University of Minnesota |accessdate=30 March 2020 |date=6 January 2015}} was a professor of physical chemistry who studied molecular orbitals to develop atomic hybridization and valence bond theories.{{cite journal |last1=Ainsworth |first1=Susan J. |title=Henry A. Bent |journal=Chemical and Engineering News |date=23 March 2015 |volume=93 |issue=12 |page=44 |url=https://cen.acs.org/articles/93/i12/HenryBent.html |accessdate=29 March 2020}} Bent's rule, which predicts the orbital hybridization of a central atom as a function of the electronegativities of the substituents attached to it, is named for him.

In thermodynamics he developed a global approach now known as "entropy analysis" for the entropy component of thermodynamic free energy in relation to the second law of thermodynamics and the spontaneity of various chemical processes.{{cite journal |title= Teaching Entropy Analysis in the First-Year High School Course and Beyond |first= Thomas H. |last= Bindel |journal= J. Chem. Educ. |year= 2004 |volume= 81 |issue= 11 |pages= 1585–1594 |doi= 10.1021/ed081p1585 }}

Bent was also interested in the periodic laws of the elements and promoted the left-step periodic table based on orbital-filling rules.{{cite journal |title= New Ideas in Chemistry from Fresh Energy for the Periodic Law (Henry A. Bent) |first= A. Truman |last= Schwartz |journal= J. Chem. Educ. |year= 2007 |volume= 84 |issue= 9 |pages= 1431–1432 |doi= 10.1021/ed084p1431 |doi-access=free }}