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Entropic factors also contribute to the high melting points of polyhedral alkanes

Nature Chemistry volume 7, page 89 (2015)Cite this article

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In a 2011 Article, Shaik, Alvarez and co-authors reported a computational study of dihydrogen C–H···H–C interactions in dimers of linear, branched and polyhedral alkanes1. They found that the intermolecular interactions between isolated pairs of polyhedral alkanes are significantly stronger than those between linear alkanes with the same number of carbon atoms, and the discussion of these results included the question “Why do polyhedranes have higher melting points than linear alkanes of similar size?” The purpose of this Correspondence is to mention that the melting point of a solid is also influenced by the entropy change on melting, according to Tm = ΔHm / ΔSm. The reported discussion based on calculated intermolecular interaction energies and the expected number of nearest neighbours in a crystal structure addresses only ΔHm, which cannot alone account for trends in melting points.

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  1. Department of Pharmacy, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 2, Copenhagen Ø, 2100, Denmark

    Andrew D. Bond

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Correspondence to Andrew D. Bond.

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Bond, A. Entropic factors also contribute to the high melting points of polyhedral alkanes. Nature Chem 7, 89 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2146

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