|
This graphic depicts the bond between two atoms of
chromium that has set a new record for the shortest chemical bond
ever found between two metals.
Credit: Klaus Theopold
|
�Sometimes things like this just happen,� said
Klaus Theopold, professor and chairperson of the UD Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Theopold and Kevin Kreisel, who graduated with his doctorate from UD
in August and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the University of
Wisconsin, made the finding, working with research associate Glenn Yap
and postdoctoral fellow Olga Dmitrenko, both from UD, and Clark Landis,
a colleague from the University of Wisconsin.
The research was reported in the Journal of the American Chemical
Society.
Theopold has been researching the chemistry of chromium for a long
time. The metal is an important industrial catalyst for making
plastics such as polyethylene.
�We discovered this interesting looking molecule and realized that it
had an extremely short distance between the metal atoms,� Theopold
said.
Using an analytical technique called X-ray diffraction, the scientists
were able to look directly at the atomic structure of the new molecule
and measure the distance between the chromium atoms.
A rule-of-thumb in chemistry, Theopold said, is that bond length and
bond strength go together, so it's likely that the metal-metal bond is
a strong one, although Theopold said no one knows for sure.
�This molecule is probably not practically useful. We're not going to
get a patent here or cure cancer,� Theopold noted. �Records define the
range in which things can exist. It's just an interesting molecule
from a fundamental scientific standpoint.�
And those teeny-tiny bonds do mark a new world record for chemistry.
Before the UD discovery, Theopold said, the last record, achieved by
researchers at Texas A&M University, stood for nearly 30 years.
|
