Researchers at the Free University of Berlin and Shanxi University in China have confirmed the existence of a new type of chemical bond. This type of bond was theorized 30 years ago but solid evidence was never procured to prove the existence of this bond. In addition, technology that measured quantum mechanics in the past was not as advanced and accurate is it is now. With today's innovations, scientists are able at last to come up with significant evidence that marks the existence of the bond. In chemical bond formed in classical chemistry, a bond is formed to reduce the overall potential energy of the system. But in this case, the potential energy of the system is higher, something that may seem like a violation of the laws of entropy. The new bond, which is energetically unfavorable can be explained through the reduction of vibrational zero potential energy. The vibration zero potential energy is the difference between the energy of the ground state electron and the vibrationless electron. In this vibrational bond, the vibrational zero potential decreases so much that they system becomes stabilized. An example of this bond is BrHBr. The bromines in the compound are isotopes, meaning they have different atomic masses. These Bromine isotopes paired around a hydrogen isotope result in a higher potential energy, but a large decrease in the ZPE. This large difference is enough to make up for the increase of potential energy in the system and the bond is allowed to exist.
References:
http://cccbdb.nist.gov/zpenotes.asp
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2014/10/isotope-effect-produces-new-type-chemical-bond
This is extremely interesting Ryan. I have always thought that discoveries that break the rules of physics are rather intriguing. I am wondering can this bond exist naturally and how stable is it?
ReplyDelete