Suppose you were trying to invent a bright orange powder that could easily dye clothes and be hard to wash off. Using your knowledge of quantum mechanics you'd design this symmetrical molecule where an electron's wavefunction can vibrate back and forth along a chain of carbons at the frequency of green light. Absorbing green light makes it look orange! And this molecule doesn't dissolve in water.
Yes: you'd invent turmeric!
Or more precisely 'curcurmin', the molecule that gives turmeric its special properties.
The black atoms are carbons, the white are hydrogens and the red are oxygens.
Read on and check out what pure curcurmin looks like.
@johncarlosbaez@b3nb3n@mc I vividly remember the moment in grad school twenty-odd years ago when it suddenly hit me that conjugated carbon-carbon double bonds are a hallmark of dyes "#chromophores" (as well as fluorescent molecules "#fluorophores"). Because they happen to have #electrons of just the right energies to absorb visible #photons! (Or ultraviolet photons, and then emit visible photons.)
One of my many post-undergrad "WHY oh WHY DIDN'T THEY MENTION THIS IN #OrganicChemistry?!" moments.
Scientists have detected a new carbon compound, methyl cation, in space for the first time using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. This compound, crucial in forming complex carbon-based molecules, was found in a young star system in the Orion Nebula. The discovery could enhance our understanding of life's potential development...
So, we're going back to organic chemistry everyone!
After my first post with my molecular model kit showing an environmental contaminant, I decided to post up another.
This one is a semi-volatile organic environmental contaminant that is commonly found in coal tar, mothballs, and mixed into creosote for rail ties. That distinct "mothball odor" is this compound! Fun fact - a human nose can detect the mothball odor before most standard electronic detectors of organic odors / vapors.
Can you guess the compound? Let me know in the comments!
Welcome back to another round of organic chemistry with MDMRN.
Once again, I've taken my molecular model kit to craft a new molecule. This one, frankly, I was able to craft using the pieces of the previous ones I presented before. While I didn't say it last time, the green represents a halogen, in this case specifically chlorine.
A hint is that the production of these types of compounds has been banned in numerous countries, including the United States. It was, historically, found in electrical transformers.
Can you guess what type of compound this is? Let me know in the comments!
I don't talk about work here a whole lot, but I'm a chemical engineer by education and have been doing environmental engineering work for the past 17 years.
So, I have an organic chemistry molecular model kit that I have kept at work for years. I, periodically, make contaminants I've seen at various sites across my 17 year career cleaning up the environment.
Do you know what this chemical is supposed to be? Leave a comment below with your guess!
⚗️ #TotalSynthesis of Waixenicin A, 9-Deacetoxy-14,15-deepoxyxeniculin and Xeniafaraunol A by Thomas Magauer and colleagues (#University of #Innsbruck@uniinnsbruck#Austria) published recently in #JACS featuring an unusual alkylation ring closing strategy.
The #TotalSynthesis of highly condensed polycyclic terpenoids has been a hot topic in #Chemistry recently. Yandong Zhang (#Xiamen University, #China) and co-workers now were able to synthesize such complex terpenes by epoxide-ene cyclization, oxygenation, and subsequent skeletal rearrangement. Read more about this protecting group free total synthesis in #JACS: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.3c06442
Foundation of All Known Life: Webb Telescope Makes First Detection of Crucial Carbon Molecule (68k.news)
Scientists have detected a new carbon compound, methyl cation, in space for the first time using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. This compound, crucial in forming complex carbon-based molecules, was found in a young star system in the Orion Nebula. The discovery could enhance our understanding of life's potential development...