Single Electron Bands in Carbon

 


Covalent bonds are two atoms that are bound together by sharing a pair of electrons. This forms the staging that underlines the majority of organic compounds. 

In 1931, Linus Pauling theorized that covalent bonds could be made from a single, unpaired electron. It was thought that these single-electron bonds would be weaker than the standard covalent bond having a pair of electrons. 

Since then, researchers have observed single-electron bonds, but never in carbon or hydrogen. The search to find one-electron bonds shared between carbon atoms has eluded scientists. 

Recently, an article was published in the journal Nature. The article was written by researchers at Hokkaido University. They have isolated a compound in which a single electron is shared between two carbon atoms in a remarkably stable covalent bond. This bond is referred to as a sigma bond. 

Professor Yusuke Ishigaki is co-author of this study. He is from the Department of Chemistry at Hokkaido University. He reports, “Elucidating the nature of single-electron sigma bonds between two carbon atoms is essential to gain a deeper understanding of chemical bonding theories and would provide further insights into chemical reactions.” 

The scientists created the single electron bond using a complex process. They subjected a derivative of hexaphenylethane to an oxidation reaction using iodine. Hexaphenylethane  contains an extremely stretched out paired-electron covalent bond between two carbon atoms. The reaction was intriguing, it produced dark violet colorized crystals of an iodine salt. 

The team studied the particles using X-ray diffraction analysis. They found that the carbon atoms in the matter were very close together, implying there were single-electron covalent bonds between the carbon atoms.  The scientists confirmed this by using Raman spectroscopy.

Takuya Shimajiri from the University of Tokyo was lead author on the paper. He summarizes, “These results thus constitute the first piece of experimental evidence for a carbon-carbon single covalent bond, which can be expected to pave the way for further developments of the chemistry of this scarcely explored type of bonding.”

This is exciting research for the future of nanotechnology! 

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