Chemists have unexpectedly made two differently colored
crystals - one orange, the other blue - from one chemical in the same flask
while studying a special kind of molecular connection called an agostic bond.
The discovery, reported in Angewandte Chemie International Edition on July 29,
is providing new insights into important industrial chemical reactions such as
those that occur while making plastics and fuels.
"We were studying agostic bonds in a project to make
liquid fuels like methanol from carbon dioxide to replace fuels we get from
oil," said chemist Morris Bullock at the Department of Energy's Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory. "We knew the molecule we were making would
have an agostic bond, but we had no idea there'd be two flavors of these metal
complexes."