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Chemists make ‘impossible’ molecules that break 100-year-old bonding rule

The molecules were deemed too unstable to make, but experiments show they can be ‘captured’ in certain reactions to yield useful products.

This is because the bonds would force the molecule into a tortured, strained 3-D shape that makes it highly reactive and unstable, says study co-author Neil Garg, a chemist at the University of California, Los Angeles. In the latest attempt, Garg and his colleagues treated a precursor compound with a fluoride source to kick-start a milder ‘elimination’ reaction, which removes groups of atoms from molecules. When the researchers added various trapping agents — chemicals that capture unstable molecules as they react — to this 3D ABO, they were able to produce several complex compounds that could be isolated.

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