catenation

Information about catenation

Catenation is the ability of a chemical element to form covalent bonds with itself, resulting in ring, chain and cage structures. The element most well known for its catenation is carbon, with organic chemistry being essentially the study of catenated carbon structures (otherwise known as catenae). However, carbon is by no means the only element capable of forming such catenae, and several other main group elements are capable of forming an expansive range of catenae.

The ability of an element to catenate is primarily based on the bond energy of the element to itself. This ability is also influenced by a range of steric and electronic factors, including the electronegativity of the element in question, the molecular orbital hybridization and the ability to form different kinds of covalent bonds. For example, carbon has the ability to form both sigma and pi bonds to itself. This is due to an overlap between pi-electron orbitals, allowing electron density to be shared and thus stabilising the bond. Silicon, on the other hand, has negligible overlap between pi-orbitals, and thus tends to not form pi-bonds by preference. As a result, silicon has a relatively poor capacity for catenation.

The ability of certain main group elements to catenate is currently the subject of research into inorganic polymers.

See also

chemical element, or element, is a type of atom that is defined by its atomic number; that is, by the number of protons in its nucleus. The term is also used to refer to a pure chemical substance composed of atoms with the same number of protons.
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Covalent bonding is a form of chemical bonding that is characterized by the sharing of pairs of electrons between atoms, or between atoms and other covalent bonds.
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4, 2
(mildly acidic oxide)
Electronegativity 2.55 (Pauling scale)
Ionization energies
(more) 1st: 1086.5 kJmol−1
2nd: 2352.6 kJmol−1
3rd: 4620.5 kJmol−1

Atomic radius 70 pm
Atomic radius (calc.
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Organic chemistry is a specific discipline within chemistry which involves the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation (by synthesis or by other means) of chemical compounds consisting primarily of carbon and hydrogen, which may
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In chemistry, bond energy (E) is a measure of bond strength in a chemical bond. For example the carbon-hydrogen bond energy in methane E(C–H) is the enthalpy change involved with breaking up one molecule of methane into a carbon atom and 4 hydrogen radicals
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Electronegativity, symbol χ, is a chemical property which describes the power of an atom (or, more rarely, a functional group) to attract electrons towards itself.[1] First proposed by Linus Pauling in 1932 as a development of valence bond theory,[2]
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In chemistry, a molecular orbital is a region in which an electron may be found in a molecule.[1] MOs are introduced in qualitative and pictorial models of bonding in molecules, and specify the spatial distribution and energy of one (or a pair) of electrons.
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Silicon (IPA: /ˈsɪlɪkən/ or /ˈsɪlɪˌkɑn/, Latin: silicium
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Inorganic polymers are polymers whose structural units use any chemical element except carbon. Some of these polymers can be used for making environment-friendly plastics

Examples

  • Polyphosphazene
  • Polysulfide
  • Borazine

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Concatenation may refer to:
  • Concatenation, a computer programming operation that joins strings together
  • Concatenation (mathematics), a mathematical operation that combines two vectors

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