Electron-deficient multicenter bonding in phase change materials: A chance for reconciliation

In the last years, a controversy has been raised regarding the nature of the chemical bond in phase change materials. Two bonding models have claimed to be able to explain their extraordinary properties: the metavalent bonding model and the hypervalent (electron-rich multicenter) bonding model. In this work, we comment that both approaches can be reconciled if we think differently by considering the pros and cons of both models and agree with a third way; i.e. phase change materials are governed by electron-deficient multicenter bonds.