What is it about?
The structure of a complex formed between argon atom and propargyl alcohol has been determined by microwave spectroscopy. Unexpectedly, this led the authors to propose a 'carbon bond' analogous to the well known 'hydrogen bond'. Hydrogen bonding is responsible for the properties of water and DNA, both molecules of life and has been investigated for over a century. 'Carbon bond' was proposed by us in 2013 and its importance to biology has already been recognized.
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Why is it important?
This work led to our discovery of 'carbon bond' which in a way has become the final frontier in the area of 'intermolecular bonding'. Now we know, every element in the periodic table could have interactions similar to the well known 'hydrogen bonding'. Carbon bond is weaker than hydrogen bond and this fact is important in the stability of carbon compounds which form the basis of life
Perspectives
About a century ago hydrogen bonding was proposed to explain the fact that a small molecule like H2O is a liquid and a heavier molecule like H2S is a gas. In general, in a series, as the molecules become big, they go from gaseous to liquid to solid state as can be seen from simple hydrocarbons. Hydrogen bonding was thought to be unique and over the last few decades similar 'bonding' by halogen, chalcogen and pnictogen groups were found. Our discovery of 'carbon bond' has brought an end to this field!
Professor Elangannan Arunan
Indian Institute of Science
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Microwave Spectroscopic and Atoms in Molecules Theoretical Investigations on the Ar⋅⋅⋅Propargyl Alcohol Complex: Ar⋅⋅⋅HO, Ar⋅⋅⋅π, and Ar⋅⋅⋅C Interactions, ChemPhysChem, January 2013, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201200760.
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