title: What is the smallest saturated acyclic alkane that cannot be made?
abstract: Saturated acyclic alkanes may show a high degree of strain if they have many branches close to each other. We report calculations which indicate how strained a molecule may become before it falls apart rapidly at room temperature and so allow us to identify the simplest alkane which cannot be made.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Unilever Centre for Molecular Science Informatics, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK.
authors.forename: K M Nalin
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: de Silva
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Goodman