Posts Tagged ‘quadruple’

Blisteringly bent (quadruple) bonds

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

So ingrained is the habit to think of a bond as a simple straight line connecting two atoms, that we rarely ask ourselves if they are bent, and if so, by how much (and indeed, does it matter?). Well Hursthouse, Malik, and Sales, as long ago as 1978, asked just such a question about the unlikeliest of bonds, a quadruple Cr-Cr bond, found in the compound di-μ-trimethylsilylmethyl-bis-[(tri-methylphosphine) (trimethylsilylmethyI)chromium(II)(DOI: 10.1039/dt9780001314[1]). They arrived at this conclusion by looking very carefully at how the overlaps with the Cr d-orbitals might be achieved.

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References

  1. M.B. Hursthouse, K.M.A. Malik, and K.D. Sales, "Crystal and molecular structure of di-µ-trimethylsilylmethyl-bis[(tri-methylphosphine)(trimethylsilylmethyl)chromium(II)](4 Cr–Cr)", J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans., pp. 1314-1318, 1978. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/dt9780001314