In the previous post I pondered the colour of Monastral blue (copper phthalocyanine). Something did not quite fit, and so I speculated that perhaps some oxidation of the pigment might give a new species. This species (Cambridge code FEGJOQ) comprises two parts of copper phthalocyanine, 1 part of the corresponding cation, and 1 part of triodide anion.

My university tutorial yesterday covered selective reductions of functional groups in organic chemistry. My thoughts on that topic have now morphed into something rather different. Scientific research has a habit of having this sort of thing happen.

The molecule below was characterised in 1996 (DOI: 10.1246/cl.1996.489) and given the name tris(dithiolene)vanadium (IV). No attempt was made in the original article to give this molecule a Lewis structure using Lewis electron pair bonds. This blog will explore some of the issues that arise when this is attempted. ¹ NAMPOG.

Carbon dioxide is much in the news, not least because its atmospheric concentration is on the increase. How to sequester it and save the planet is a hot topic. Here I ponder its solid state structure, as a hint to its possible reactivity, and hence perhaps for clues as to how it might be captured. The structure was determined (DOI 10.1103/PhysRevB.65.104103) as shown below. The structure of solid carbon dioxide.

Quite a few threads have developed in this series of posts, and following each leads in rather different directions. In this previous post the comment was made that coordinating a carbon dication to the face of a cyclopentadienyl anion resulted in a monocation which had a remarkably high proton affinity.