Platonic hydrocarbons
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Platonic hydrocarbons are the molecular representation of platonic solid geometries with vertices replaced by carbon atoms and with edges replaced by chemical bonds. Not all platonic solids have a molecular counterpart:
- Tetravalent carbon excludes an icosahedron (5 faces meeting at each vertex) as a feasible objective;
- Angle strain prohibits an octahedron.
The following platonic hydrocarbons, on the other hand, have been synthesised:
- Tetrahedrane but only with proper substituents;
- Cubane;
- Dodecahedrane.
Note that with increasing number of carbon atoms in the frame, the geometry will eventually approximate a sphere. This is ultimately accomplished in fullerene although not a Platonic hydrocarbon itself (Buckminsterfullerene, C60, has the shape of a truncated icosahedron, an Archimedean solid).
[edit] References
- Henning Hopf, Classics in Hydrocarbon Chemistry, Wiley VCH, 2000.
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