In 2013, I created an iTunesU library of 115 mechanistic types in organic and organometallic chemistry, illustrated using video animations of the intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) computed using a high level quantum mechanical procedure. Many of those examples first derived from posts here.

A PID or persistent identifier has been in common use in scientific publishing for around 20 years now. It was introduced as a DOI (Digital Object Identifier), and the digital object in this case was the journal article.

In 2001, Shaik and co-workers published the first of several famous review articles on the topic A Different Story of π-Delocalization. The Distortivity of π-Electrons and Its Chemical Manifestations.

In a welcome move, one of the American chemical society journals has published an encouragement to submit what is called FAIR data to the journal.. A reminder that FAIR data is data that can be Found (F), Accessed (A), Interoperated(I) and Re-used( R). I thought I might try to explore this new tool here.

Here is another selection from the Molecules-of-the-Year shortlist published by C&E News, in which hexagonal planar transition metal coordination is identified.

I noted in an earlier blog, a potential (if difficult) experimental test of the properties of the singlet state of dicarbon, C2. Now, just a few days ago, a ChemRxiv article has been published suggesting another (probably much more realistic) test. This looks at the so-called 7Σ open shell state of the molecule where three electrons […]

Having shown that carbon as a carbene centre, C: can act as a hydrogen bond acceptor, as seen from a search of crystal structures, I began to wonder if there is any chance that carbon as a radical centre, C• could do so as well. Definitely a subversive thought, since radical centres are supposed to abstract hydrogens […]

In the previous post, I showed that carbon can act as a hydrogen bond acceptor (of a proton) to form strong hydrogen bond complexes. Which brings me to a conceptual connection: can singlet dicarbon form such a hydrogen bond?

A hydrogen bond donor is considered as an electronegative element carrying a hydrogen that is accepted by an atom carrying a lone pair of electrons, as in X:…H-Y where X: is the acceptor and H-Y the donor.

All of the molecules in this year’s C&EN list are fascinating in their very different ways. Here I take a look at the twisty tetracene (dodecaphenyltetracene) which is indeed very very twisty.

My momentum of describing early attempts to use optical rotation to correlate absolute configuration of small molecules such as glyceraldehyde and lactic acid with their optical rotations has carried me to L-Malic acid (below labelled as (S)-Malic acid).