Bond-polarity: an order-disorder phenomenon?

The Kimball Free-Cloud Model: A Failed Innovation in Chemical Education?

“…Likewise, Bent has generated a list of interesting parallels between the Kimball model for covalent species and packing models for ionic solids. , Not included in this list, however, is how the ionic model deals with so-called defect structures, though pursuit of this particular analogy may well provide a hint for how to incorporate the phenomenon of metallic conductivity into the model’s current static electride ion picture of metals . Along similar lines, Hooydonk has suggested that bond polarity might also be incorporated into the model using an order–disorder analogy . Also of note is Gillespie’s attempt, in his 1979 Nyholm Lecture, to extend the model to at least a few cluster species of the main-block elements by minimizing core–core repulsions instead of electron-pair repulsions …”