Posts Tagged ‘metal coordinating’

Is dicarbon (C2) a molecule of chemical interest?

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2013

C2 (dicarbon) is certainly interesting from a theoretical point of view. Whether or not it can be described as having a quadruple bond has induced much passionate discussion[1],[2],[3],[4]. Its occurrence in space and in flames is also well-known. But does it have what might be called a conventional chemistry? Other highly reactive species (cyclobutadiene is a well-known example) can often be tamed by trapping as a ligand coordinated to a metal and so one might speculate upon how C2 responds to the proximity of a metal. As is noted here[2], dicarbon as a ligand has been known a long time as part of what is referred to as carbide chemistry. In this regard it is thought of as the di-anion, C22- (and isoelectronic therefore with dinitrogen). Thus calcium carbide, but in fact the degree to which the dicarbon can absorb electrons is thought to be wide (as judged by the resulting C-C bond length, see[2]). Here I take a look at just one metal carbide[5] that caught my eye (there are hundreds of others, many no doubt equally interesting!).

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References

  1. S. Shaik, D. Danovich, W. Wu, P. Su, H.S. Rzepa, and P.C. Hiberty, "Quadruple bonding in C2 and analogous eight-valence electron species", Nature Chemistry, vol. 4, pp. 195-200, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1263
  2. S. Shaik, H.S. Rzepa, and R. Hoffmann, "One Molecule, Two Atoms, Three Views, Four Bonds?", Angewandte Chemie International Edition, vol. 52, pp. 3020-3033, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201208206
  3. G. Frenking, and M. Hermann, "Critical Comments on “One Molecule, Two Atoms, Three Views, Four Bonds?”", Angewandte Chemie International Edition, vol. 52, pp. 5922-5925, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201301485
  4. D. Danovich, S. Shaik, H.S. Rzepa, and R. Hoffmann, "A Response to the Critical Comments on “One Molecule, Two Atoms, Three Views, Four Bonds?”", Angewandte Chemie International Edition, vol. 52, pp. 5926-5928, 2013. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201302350
  5. E. Dashjav, Y. Prots, G. Kreiner, W. Schnelle, F.R. Wagner, and R. Kniep, "Chemical bonding analysis and properties of La7Os4C9—A new structure type containing C- and C2-units as Os-coordinating ligands", Journal of Solid State Chemistry, vol. 181, pp. 3121-3130, 2008. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jssc.2008.08.005