The Bond Slam – a second peek inside.

At the moment, the bond slam is something of a home from home for this blog and since much of my activity is happening there rather than here, I thought I might give you pointers to some of the topics, which are evolving, so to speak, before our very eyes.

  1. The topic of agostic interactions (or perhaps bonds) was seeded by a graduate student (with some encouragement perhaps from his supervisor). It is a different kind of hydrogen bond, one specifically involving a metal. As per many types of bond, it has its controversies! Thus is it useful to fragment this into true agostic interactions and into those which are merely anagostic? How should the calculated wavefunction for a molecule exhibiting the effect be analysed? Geometries, normal mode frequencies, electron density shifts, QTAIM, NCI, NBO, ELF are all discussed, thus far with much apparent agreement! I have contributed some crystal structure searches, such as the one below. If you want to understand what these acronyms all mean, go visit the topic, and perchance even contribute!
  2. Readers of this blog might have noticed the topic of hypervalence has occasionally appeared, sometimes coupled with hypercoordination. Often these two terms are loosely interchanged in their meaning and it is certainly (I believe) often taught even more loosely in undergraduate lectures. For my take on the topic, go visit the slam, where some examples of what I choose to call true hypervalence are suggested. It is not as common as you might think!
  3. Molecular electrides make an appearance, again a topic I have occasionally covered on this blog.
  4. Penta and hexa-coordinate carbon (not to be confused, but probably it will be, with penta and hexavalent carbon) make separate appearances, with some new suggestions for hitherto undiscovered analogues for other elements.
  5. But the most unusual and original suggestion is that we consider the properties of Positronium Hydride or PsH. One for the physicists to detect I fancy!

There are still around three weeks to go before the live debate in front of an audience, so check regularly to see what new insights might have been added. 

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