Localized bonding model for coordination and cluster compounds

Over the last decades of development of inorganic chemistry, there are a lot of examples of coordination or cluster compounds with special structure or bonding properties reported. These compounds not only just come in various sizes and shapes, but also cover different categories of chemical bonding. Despite such advances in the synthesis and characterization of such compounds, the theoretical understanding is somewhat lagging behind. In this short account, we will present different classes of coordination and cluster compounds, and show possible ways for us to formulate a modular bonding picture that allows fragments to be pieced together. We hope that such modular bonding analysis would serve as an insightful way to view all these compounds regarding their structure and bonding aspects.