Archive for February, 2022

Chasing ever higher bond orders; the strange case of beryllium.

Monday, February 7th, 2022

Ever since the concept of a shared two-electron bond was conjured by Gilbert N. Lewis in 1916,[cite]10.1021/ja02261a002[/cite] chemists have been fascinated by the related concept of a bond order (the number of such bonds that two atoms can participate in, however a bond is defined) and pushing it ever higher for pairs of like-atoms. Lewis first showed in 1916[cite]10.1021/ja02261a002[/cite] how two carbon atoms could share two, four or six electrons to achieve a bond order of up to three. It took quite a few decades for this to be extended to four for carbon (and nitrogen) and that only with some measure of controversy and dispute (for one recent brief summary, see[cite]10.1039/D1CP02056K[/cite]).

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