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

Organic molecules, which contain carbon (pictured), form certain shapes because of how their atoms bond.Credit: Dennis Kunkel Microscopy/Science Photo Library For the first time, chemists have made a class of molecules previously thought too unstable to exist, and used them to generate exotic compounds1. Scientists say these notorious molecules, known as anti-Bredt olefins (ABOs), offer […]

Science

Chemists broke a 100-year-old rule to make extremely unstable molecules

Scientists have broken a 100-year-old chemistry rule to synthesize a class of molecules previously thought to be too unstable to form. The molecules in question violate Bredt’s rule, which describes where certain types of bonds can occur within a class of 3D chemical compounds. Successfully synthesizing these “anti-Bredt” molecules, as described Nov. 1 in the […]