Did I say no purple dragons? Did I?
Molecular surprises are sometimes right in front of us, if only we’d do the math.
Some new molecules are simply astounding. We have learned that xenon, a so-called noble gas, is far from inert, forming bonds with halogens, oxygen and carbon. But I never imagined a bond between two relatively unreactive elements, gold (Au) and xenon (Xe), and, to boot, with a pretty naked xenon acting as a ligand—which is usually an ion or a molecule that binds to a central metal atom by donating one of its electron pairs. But that’s what Stefan Seidel and Konrad Seppelt of the Free University of Berlin made in 2000 in the square-planar AuXe42+ ion.
installation { Phoebe Washburn }
