Another post inspired by a comment on an earlier one; I had been discussing compounds of the type I.In (n=4,6) as possible candidates for hypervalency. The comment suggests the below as a similar analogue, deriving from observations made in 1989.[cite]10.1016/S0040-4039(00)99132-9[/cite]
Posts Tagged ‘Hypervalent molecule’
Hypervalent or not? A fluxional triselenide.
Saturday, February 24th, 2018Are diazomethanes hypervalent molecules? An attempt into more insight by more “tuning” with substituents.
Tuesday, December 26th, 2017Recollect the suggestion that diazomethane has hypervalent character[cite]10.1039/C5SC02076J[/cite]. When I looked into this, I came to the conclusion that it probably was mildly hypervalent, but on carbon and not nitrogen. Here I try some variations with substituents to see what light if any this casts.
Can any hypervalence in diazomethanes be amplified?
Saturday, December 23rd, 2017In the previous post, I referred to a recently published review on hypervalency[cite]10.1039/C5SC02076J[/cite] which introduced a very simple way (the valence electron equivalent γ) of quantifying the effect. Diazomethane was cited as one example of a small molecule exhibiting hypervalency (on nitrogen) by this measure. Here I explore the effect of substituting diazomethane with cyano and nitro groups.‡
Hypervalence and octet-expansion in trimethylene-λ6-sulfane and related species.
Monday, November 27th, 2017Previously: “Non-polar” species such as SeMe6, SMe6, ClMe3, ClMe5 all revealed interesting properties for the Se-C, S-C or Cl-C “single” bonds. The latter two examples in particular hinted at internal structures for these single bonds, as manifested by two ELF basins for some of the bonds. Here I take a look at the related molecule where a formal double bond between carbon and the central sulfur atom replacing the single-bond might also hint at octet expansions and hypervalence.
Hypervalence revisited. The odd case of hexamethyl selenium.
Tuesday, November 7th, 2017One thread that runs through this blog is that of hypervalency. It was therefore nice to come across a recent review of the concept[cite]10.1039/c5sc02076j[/cite] which revisits the topic, and where a helpful summary is given of the evolving meanings over time of the term hypervalent. The key phrase “it soon became clear that the two principles of the 2-centre-2-electron bond and the octet rule were sometimes in conflict” succinctly summarises the issue. Two molecules that are discussed in this review caught my eye, CLi6 and SeMe6. The former is stated as “anomalous in terms of the Lewis model“, but as I have shown in an earlier post, the carbon is in fact not anomalous in a Lewis sense because of a large degree of Li-Li bonding. When this is taken into account, the Lewis model of the carbon becomes more “normal”. Here I take a look at the other cited molecule, SeMe6.
Real hypervalency in a small molecule.
Sunday, February 21st, 2016Hypervalency is defined as a molecule that contains one or more main group elements formally bearing more than eight electrons in their valence shell. One example of a molecule so characterised was CLi6[cite]10.1038/355432a0[/cite] where the description "“carbon can expand its octet of electrons to form this relatively stable molecule“ was used. Yet, in this latter case, the octet expansion is in fact an illusion, as indeed are many examples that are cited. The octet shell remains resolutely un-expanded. Here I will explore the tiny molecule CH3F2- where two extra electrons have been added to fluoromethane.