Rogachev and Collaborators Predict Existence of “Impossible” Molecules

Illinois Institute of Technology Assistant Chemistry Professor Andrey Rogachev and his collaborators have predicted computationally the existence of new molecules to be stable under normal conditions, by breaking the normal valence and forming compounds not normally formed.

Previously, these molecules were thought to be “impossible”; the existence of such molecules, in fact, contradicts “traditional” inorganic chemistry – a significant breakthrough.

Rogachev, a theoretical and computational chemist who studied with such people as Nobel Laureate Roald Hoffmann, and his colleagues from Cornell University, California State University, and the University of Merida (Mexico) published their work this summer in the article “Molecular CsF5 and CsF2+” in Angewandte Chemie, International Edition.

The article describes in detail the theoretical view on formation and stability of very unusual new alkali metal halides in which the formal chemical valence of the metal center is dramatically violated.