Posts Tagged ‘inorganic chemist’

Ménage à deux: Non-classical SC bonds.

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

A previous post posed the question; during the transformation of one molecule to another, what is the maximum number of electron pairs that can simultaneously move either to or from any one atom-pair bond as part of the reaction? A rather artificial example (atom-swapping between three nitrosonium cations) was used to illustrate the concept, in which three electron pairs would all move from a triple bond to a region not previously containing any electrons to form new triple bonds and destroy the old. Here is a slightly more realistic example of the phenomenon, illustrated by the (narcisistic) reaction below of a bis(sulfur trifluoride) carbene. Close relatives of this molecule are actually known, with either one SF3 of the units replaced by a CF3 group or a SF5 replacing the SF3 (DOI: 10.1021/ja00290a038 ).

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