The buckminsterfullerene molecule (C60) comprises 60 carbon atoms bound together into a spherical cage having a bonding structure that resembles the seams on a soccer ball. In recent years chemists had synthesized a number of dimers of C60--that is, molecules made of two connected C60 units. They included such dimers as C121H2 and C120O2, in which two C60 molecules are connected with various linkages. The simplest C60 dimer, which is C120, had eluded synthesis, however.
During the year Koichi Komatsu and associates at Kyoto (Japan) University and the Rigaku Corp., Tokyo, reported synthesis of the C120 dimer. It consists of C60 cages linked by a single shared four-carbon ring. The configuration gives the dimer the distinctive shape of a dumbbell, with the shared ring forming a handle that connects the two C60 spheres. Komatsu developed a new solid-state mechanical-chemical technique for the synthesis that makes use of a vibrating mill. High-speed vibrations activate the reaction by bringing the reagents into very close contact and providing extra mechanical energy. The mill consisted of a stainless-steel capsule containing a stainless-steel ball and a solid mixture of C60 and potassium cyanide (used as a catalyst) under nitrogen gas. Researchers vibrated the mill forcefully for 30 minutes, producing 18% yields of C120. Komatsu reported that the vibrating-mill method could be used in the preparation of dimers of other fullerene molecules--e.g., C140 from C70.
The framework of the cubane molecule (C8H8) consists of eight carbon atoms linked together in the shape of a cube, a structure that has challenged traditional concepts about chemical bonding. Cubane has properties, including highly strained 90° bonds storing enormous amounts of energy, that make it an ideal candidate for a new generation of powerful explosives, rocket propellants, and fuels. Substitution of nitro groups (-O-N=O) for the eight hydrogen atoms, for instance, would create an explosive expected to be twice as powerful as TNT. Furthermore, the rigid cubic structure appeared useful as the molecular core in the synthesis of antiviral agents and other drugs. Such applications lagged, however, in part because chemists knew little about its basic chemistry and behaviour. Advances in 1997 added to knowledge about cubane, which was first synthesized in 1964.
Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md., and the University of Chicago reported determination of cubane’s crystal structure at high temperatures. They used X-ray crystallography to show that the basic unit of solid cubane remains a rhombohedron even at temperatures near its melting point. In a second report scientists from the University of Minnesota and the University of Chicago announced determination of several key properties of cubane in the gas phase, including the first experimental values for its bond dissociation energy, heat of hydration, heat of formation, and strain energy.
Researchers in industrial settings were working to develop new ways of synthesizing chemical compounds by means of reactions that do not require toxic ingredients or generate toxic by-products. Such efforts, sometimes termed "green chemistry" or "waste reduction," promised to benefit both the environment and the economy in that they would reduce the use of toxic chemicals and the volume of hazardous waste that would need costly treatment or disposal. Walter V. Cicha and associates of the Du Pont Co., Wilmington, Del., reported a new method for making phosgene that substantially reduced formation of unwanted carbon tetrachloride (CCl4). Large quantities of phosgene are produced and used annually in the manufacture of polycarbonates and polyurethane plastics, pesticides, and other products. The traditional process for making phosgene involves the reaction of carbon monoxide and chlorine with carbon-based catalysts; it forms substantial amounts of CCl4, a known carcinogen. Phosgene producers use high-temperature incineration to eliminate the CCl4, but incineration produces hydrogen chloride, which has to be scrubbed from incinerator exhaust gases before their release into the environment. The Du Pont researchers worked out the mechanism of CCl4 formation in the phosgene reaction and examined dozens of alternative catalysts. They eventually identified one that produced high yields of phosgene but formed 90% less CCl4 than the traditional catalyst.
Aldol condensation reactions have been a mainstay in organic chemistry, widely used to synthesize chemicals having important commercial and industrial applications. They involve a transfer of hydrogen between molecules in a reaction to form a new molecule, called an aldol, that is both an aldehyde and an alcohol. The first in a new generation of catalysts for accelerating hundreds of different aldol condensations became commercially available in 1997. It is a catalytic antibody, called 38C2, that was developed by researchers at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, Calif., and the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, New York City, and marketed by the Aldrich Chemical Co., Milwaukee, Wis. Catalytic antibodies, or abzymes (a contraction of "antibody enzymes"), are substances derived from the immune systems of living organisms that selectively accelerate organic chemical reactions by attaching to and stabilizing intermediate structures produced as a reaction progresses. Researchers reported that 38C2 was very efficient in catalyzing an extremely broad range of chemical reactions and that a number of similar catalysts would be commercially available in the near future.
This article updates chemical element.
The physics community worldwide acknowledged 1997 as the centenary of the discovery of the electron--the first identification of a subatomic particle--by the British physicist J.J. Thomson. Subatomic particles, and the particles of which they are constituted, also were at the centre of several interesting experimental results reported during the year, some of which had implications for both physics and cosmology. Evidence continued to underscore the dramatic differences between the reality of quantum physics and normal experience, and researchers reported developing the first atom laser.