A Flourish data visualization by viejo

Milko van der Boom talks to Chemistry World about dealing with destruction at the Weizmann Institute, saving samples and people coming together

The facile synthesis and spectroscopic identification of previously unreported hexanitrogen C2h-N6 is described, representing experimentally realized neutral molecular nitrogen allotropes beyond N2 th...

First experimental evidence of tunnelling in fluorine pushes the boundary of our understanding of chemical bonding

In July 1925, Werner Heisenberg submitted a paper to Zeitschrift für Physik entitled ‘On quantum-theoretical reinterpretation of kinematic and mechanical relationships’, thus giving birth to quantum m...

This article describes the philosophy behind- and new features in the ORCA quantum chemistry program suite, version 6.0.

The electronic structure of carbenes arises from the occupation of a σ and a π frontier orbital. While parent methylene possesses a triplet ground state (σ1π1), substituents are capable of stabilizing the singlet (σ2π0 or σ0π2) by altering the frontier orbital energies. Here, we reveal that the 1,2[I]-shift isomer of 2-iodopyridine, the N-iodo Hammick intermediate, features a resonance between its carbene σ and N–I bond σ* orbitals, rendering them frontier orbitals. This singlet carbene is efficiently generated via UV photolysis of 2-iodopyridine in solid neon at 4.4 K and reacts with molecular hydrogen − but not deuterium − via N–I bond cleavage enabled by quantum tunnelling. Our findings introduce an unprecedented carbene class, unlocking new opportunities for reactivity and electronic structure explorations.