The last globally stable extended alkane.
Mother of all folding: cold isolated linear alkanes C(n)H(2n+2) prefer an extended all-trans conformation before cohesive forces between the chain ends induce a folded hairpin structure for longer chains. It is shown by Raman spectroscopy at 100-150 K that the folded structure becomes more stable beyond n(C) = 17 or 18 carbon atoms. High-level quantum-chemical calculations yield n(C) = 17 ± 1 as the critical chain length.
Institut für Physikalische Chemie, Universität Göttingen, Germany.
Nils O B
NO
Lüttschwager
Tobias N
TN
Wassermann
Ricardo A
RA
Mata
Martin A
MA
Suhm