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Aromatic 5-silicon rings synthesized at last (cen.acs.org)
JackFr 23 minutes ago [-]
Dilithium is a real thing. Who knew?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilithium

rrr_oh_man 8 minutes ago [-]
It's indispensable when dealing with self-sealing stem bolts
snitty 50 minutes ago [-]
>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 3 minutes ago [-]
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.

rbanffy 58 minutes ago [-]
Any possible applications?
ultratalk 56 minutes ago [-]
> Iwamoto and Scheschkewitz say pentasilacyclopentadienides could be ligands for catalysts and materials.
YarickR2 22 minutes ago [-]
So, we have a chance to reduce our usage of volatile hydrocarbons. Silicon-based chemicals should not burn as easily as CH-based ones.
gus_massa 9 minutes ago [-]
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.

adrian_b 13 minutes ago [-]
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.

cubefox 46 minutes ago [-]
So what was their aroma like?
snitty 31 minutes ago [-]
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 18 minutes ago [-]
I like your explanation without condescension. Respect.
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