A new branch of chemistry

While purifying tert-butylmalononitrile, a useful starting material for the synthesis of organic electronic materials, University of Utah chemistry undergraduate Uziel Gonzalez discovered the molecule had made beautiful, fernlike crystals via room temperature sublimation. Though not suitable for structure determination by X-ray diffraction, which was the original goal, the crystals in the resulting 6 x 4 mm microscope image were suitable for framing. The acidic C–H bond of the malononitrile provides a useful handle to make new carbon-carbon bonds with highly fluorinated aromatics.

Submitted by Thomas G. Richmond, University of Utah