Posts Tagged ‘Henry Rzepa’

Following one’s nose: a quadruple bond to carbon. Surely I must be joking!

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Do you fancy a story going from simplicity to complexity, if not absurdity, in three easy steps? Read on! The following problem appears in one of our (past) examination questions in introductory organic chemistry. From relatively mundane beginnings, one can rapidly find oneself in very unexpected territory.

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Janus mechanisms (the past and the future): Reactions of the diazonium cation.

Saturday, December 11th, 2010

Janus was the mythological Roman god depicted as having two heads facing opposite directions, looking simultaneously into the past and the future. Some of the most ancient (i.e. 19th century) known reactions can be considered part of a chemical mythology; perhaps it is time for a Janus-like look into their future.

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Chemistry with a super-twist: A molecular trefoil knot, part 2.

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

A conjugated, (apparently) aromatic molecular trefoil might be expected to have some unusual, if not extreme properties. Here some of these are explored. (more…)