Theorists Intent on Stabilizing Molecules, Molecules Doing What They Want to

Professor Roald Hoffmann

Cornell University, Ithaca, USA

Basic ideas about thermodynamic stability and metastability, and on kinetic persistence of molecules in various phases of matter will be reviewed. I will then describe some personal quests for stabilization,  in the service of illustrating one or another chemical principle. And how molecules consistently foil (forgive the anthropomorphism) our good ideas, and find ingenious escape routes. 

Recording:

References:

“Why Think Up New Molecules?” American Scientist 96, 372 (2008)

“Predicting Molecules – More Realism, Please”, by Roald Hoffmann, P. von Ragué Schleyer and H. F. Schaefer III, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 47, 7164-7167 (2008).

“The Thermodynamic Sinks of This World,” American Scientist, 101, 260-263 (2013).

An Iodabenzene Story, Abdel Monem Rawashdeh,  Priyakumari C. P.,  Tao Zeng,  and Roald Hoffmann, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 139, 7124-7129 (2017).

Alkyl Isosteres, Priyakumari C.P., Roald Hoffmann, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 140, 12844-12852 (2018).