Polyhedrane syntheses hotly pursued

Abstract

The synthesis of dodecahedrane, the last of the classical uniform convex polyhedranes, has been accomplished by organic chemistry professor Leo A. Paquette and his coworkers at Ohio State University, Columbus [ J. Am. Chem. Soc. , 104, 4503 (1982)]. This achievement opens the doors to comparisons of dodecahedrane's actual properties with those calculated for it, and to studies of this and related systems in ways that likely will advance knowledge of the fundamental nature of organic compounds. There also are predictions that substituted dodecahedranes may be useful as drugs. And there is a certain beauty, in that chemists have expressed in hydrocarbon structures the geometrical forms that ancient Greek philosophers related to the basic structure of the universe. The dodecahedrane molecule is a regular 20-carbon polyhedron with 12 pentagonal sides. Paquette made 1,16-dimethyldodecahedrane in late 1980. Of the other hydrocarbons based on Platonic solids, cubane was made by Philip E. Eaton at the University ...