One electron C-C bond or Weak Interaction? New paper in PCCP
joaquinbarroso
The compound spiro-dibenzocycloheptatriene (figure 1) made headlines a year ago by claiming that the ipso carbon atoms across the molecule were bound together by a single electron σ bond. This is truly a seductive idea: that somewhere out there, in the shadows of open-shell aromatics, carbon atoms might form a single-electron σ-bond — a unicorn of bonding, indeed. Since bold claims require bold scrutiny, we went ahead and dissected the electronic structure of the radical molecule in question...