linked to by 2DOI 10.1002/anie.201103615 PMID 22025456
12 not so angry men: Hexaphenylethane is unstable, a phenomenon traditionally attributed to steric repulsion between the six phenyl rings. However, adding 12 bulky tert-butyl groups, one to each of the 12 meta positions, gives a stabile ethane derivative (see space-filling model and potential energy curve for the dissociation of the central C-C bond). This unexpected stabilization is shown to result from attractive dispersion interactions between the substituents.
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Schreiner has expanded on his previous paper1 regarding alkanes with very long C-C bonds, which I commented upon in this post. He and his colleagues report2 now a series of additional diamond-like and adamantane-like sterically congested alkanes that are stable...
S. Grimme and P. R. Schreiner,Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2011, 50, 12639Inthe special issue 90 Years of Chemical Bonding1 I expressed theopinion2 that despite of the historians characterization ofchemistry as a science without territory, the chemical bond has been...