[HN Gopher] Aromatic 5-silicon rings synthesized at last
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Aromatic 5-silicon rings synthesized at last
Author : keepamovin
Score : 68 points
Date : 2026-02-27 10:10 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (cen.acs.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (cen.acs.org)
| rbanffy wrote:
| Any possible applications?
| ultratalk wrote:
| > Iwamoto and Scheschkewitz say pentasilacyclopentadienides
| could be ligands for catalysts and materials.
| robwwilliams wrote:
| The review should have expanded on this at a practical level
| even mom and dad could understand--the standard "better life
| through chemistry" angle.
| frederikvs wrote:
| Sounds like it could improve the production efficiency of
| glyptal-impregnated, cyanoethylated bushings for turbo-
| encabulators!
| snitty wrote:
| >Move over cyclopentadiene anion--there's a new five-membered
| aromatic ring in town, and this one is made of silicon.
|
| CHEM-Es are build a little different from the rest of us.
| gilleain wrote:
| Cyclopentadiene is a great molecule - it can form 'metallocene'
| compounds where two cyclopentadiene (Cp) rings 'sandwich' a
| metal ion between them:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallocene
|
| Like Cp--M--Cp where the '--' are an unusual kind of 'bond'
| which is somewhat like five carbon-metal bonds, although I'm
| sure there is a more accurate orbital description of the
| interaction.
| theideaofcoffee wrote:
| The '--' is a ligand bond, a fundamental aspect of
| coordination and organometallic chemistry.
| bonzini wrote:
| "The average person probably only knows the formulas for
| olivine and one or two feldspars" (https://xkcd.com/2501)
| robwwilliams wrote:
| Perfect! I read this "heart-warming" overview of two papers
| in Science and learned zero about why this is of any
| significance. The discovery is significant but I had to probe
| Opus 4.6 to find out why.
|
| The personal focus is a distraction. It would be great if
| science writers could focus on the science and significance
| of the advance.
| moffkalast wrote:
| And quartz of course.
| nerdsniper wrote:
| Chemists really. Chem-E's basically just play IRL Factorio at
| work. The graphs in Factorio look almost exactly like OSI
| PiSoft charts, which basically every chemical plant uses.
| theideaofcoffee wrote:
| Nah, this is just a strict chemical synthesis problem, no need
| for the engineers yet, until you want to make ten thousand tons
| of the stuff.
| cubefox wrote:
| So what was their aroma like?
| snitty wrote:
| In this case aromatic means a ring of atoms where there is
| electron sharing among all the members of the ring.
|
| They're called aromatic rings because before they understood
| the structure, they grouped them by their behavior, and the
| aromatics contain a lot of volatile organics like benzene,
| toluene, phenol, which have strong odors.
| worthless-trash wrote:
| I like your explanation without condescension. Respect.
| snitty wrote:
| https://xkcd.com/1053/
| moffkalast wrote:
| So it's not volatile enough to give off a scent?
| jaggederest wrote:
| Massive molecule with a lithium salt on every silicon atom.
| It's not going to have basically any vapor pressure and
| thus effectively no aroma unless there are breakdown
| products
| jfengel wrote:
| Even if it were volatile, you likely wouldn't be able to
| smell it. The olfactory sense is complicated and weird, and
| targeted at organic chemistry. You can smell a few
| inorganic things (notably, elemental osmium, whose name
| literally means "smell" because that's so unusual), but
| your receptors are unlikely to trigger for anything that
| far removed.
| card_zero wrote:
| Doesn't this count as organic? Ferrocene smells of
| camphor, apparently.
| https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/ferrocene
| andrewflnr wrote:
| "Characteristic", no doubt.
| analog31 wrote:
| If you know, you're probably dead.
| JackFr wrote:
| Dilithium is a real thing. Who knew?
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilithium
| rrr_oh_man wrote:
| It's indispensable when dealing with self-sealing stem bolts
| actionfromafar wrote:
| Or a lot of yamok sauce.
| YarickR2 wrote:
| So, we have a chance to reduce our usage of volatile
| hydrocarbons. Silicon-based chemicals should not burn as easily
| as CH-based ones.
| adrian_b wrote:
| This particular silicon compound is unlikely to help much in
| that direction.
|
| On the other hand, silicone resins and elastomers are already
| in widespread use in applications where resistance to high
| temperatures or burning is required (silicone =/= silicon, the
| former coming from silic-on + ket-one, a name based on a wrong
| hypothesis).
|
| However, their mechanical resistance is usually modest, so if
| that is important they must be used either in combinations with
| other materials or reinforced, e.g. with glass fiber.
|
| They are also more expensive than hydrocarbon-based plastics,
| so they are typically used only where strictly necessary.
| gus_massa wrote:
| No, it's a super weird molecule that is big, expensive to make
| and probably form a solid. It can not replace solvents like
| benzene.
|
| The weird structure of the electrons in the silicon cycle _may_
| be useful as a catalyst(or not, it 's too early to be sure).
| Imagine it is like the Platinum in the car exhaust, not the
| solvent in the paint remover.
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