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Science 4 November 2005:
Vol. 310. no. 5749, pp. 796 - 797
DOI: 10.1126/science.1120281
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Perspectives

CHEMISTRY:
Building a Quintuple Bond

Gernot Frenking

Since 1964, chemists have tried without success to synthesize molecules in which the constituent atoms have bond order (that is, the number of bonds between a pair of atoms) greater than four. In his Perspective, Frenking discusses results reported in the same issue by Nguyen et al. in which fivefold bonding between chromium atoms has been achieved. The synthesis was made possible through the use of functional groups that bond with chromium in such a way that the chromium atoms can form quintuple bonds with each other. This opens the way for more novel multiple bond chemistry and will provide plenty of food for thought for experimentalists and theoreticians alike.

The author is at the Fachbereich Chemie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Hans-Meerwein-Strasse, D-35039 Marburg, Germany. E-mail: frenking{at}chemie.uni-marburg.de

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Formation of unprecedented actinidecarbon triple bonds in uranium methylidyne molecules.
J. T. Lyon, H.-S. Hu, L. Andrews, and J. Li (2007)
PNAS 104, 18919-18924
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)