Chemical Bonding Across the Periodic Table, at High and Ambient Pressures

无机化学、生物无机化学和金属有机化学项目的这一奖项支持康奈尔大学的罗尔德·霍夫曼教授在量子力学和化学直觉之间建立桥梁的研究，特别是在高压化学结构领域。在研究的一个部分，将考虑跨化学键合的具体难题。该提议提出的问题是，哪组原子可以构建同时包含正方形、平面和四面体元素几何构型的网络，以及是否可能在苯环中含有碘。另一个问题是，离子(而不是分子)固体在多大程度上保持了对其组成构件的结构偏好的记忆。一项中心工作解决了化学在高压下蓬勃发展的结构领域中的作用，并提议设计一系列研究，以深入了解是什么决定了例如五倍体积压缩下的结构。一个焦点是富含氢的材料，探索一种建议，即如果氢被“化学预压缩”，即被束缚在分子前体中，那么在压力下可能更容易实现金属化和超导。在高压研究领域建立理论与实验之间、化学不同分支学科之间以及化学与物理之间的桥梁，被认为将在氢储存等领域的科学中产生广泛的影响。这项工作还将通过致力于为广大受众撰写和讲述科学，并与艺术界人士进行交流，为广大社会、青年科学家以及艺术和人文科学领域的人搭建联系的桥梁。

This award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry program supports research by Professor Roald Hoffman at Cornell University to build bridges between quantum mechanics and chemical intuition, particularly in the realm of high pressure chemical structures. In one part of the research, specific puzzles of bonding across chemistry will be considered. The proposal asks for what set of atoms could one build networks containing both square planar and tetrahedral element geometries, and whether it is possible to have an iodine in a benzene ring. Another question is to what extent does an ionic (not molecular) solid maintain a memory of the structural preferences of its component building blocks. A central effort addresses the role of chemistry in the burgeoning field of structure under high pressure and proposes to design a series of studies to gain insight into what determines structure under, say, five-fold volume compression. One focus is hydrogen-rich materials, exploring a suggestion that easier metallization and superconductivity under pressure might be achieved if hydrogen is "chemically precompressed," i.e tied up in a molecular precursor. Building bridges between theory and experiment, between different subdisciplines of chemistry, and between chemistry and physics in the field of high pressure studies is proposed to have a broad impact in science in areas such as hydrogen storage. The work would also build bridges to society at large, to young scientists, and to those in the arts and humanities through a commitment to writing and speaking of science for/to a general audience, and to communicating with people in the arts.