In every chemistry textbook studied in high school and college, there will always be a mention of the single, double and the rare-to-find triple bond. However, thanks to the recent achievements at UC Davis' own chemistry department, new editions might have to be issued to mention the never-before-seen five-fold bond.

  Philip Power, a chemistry professor at UC Davis, and Tailuan Nguyen, a graduate student who worked with him, had no real intention of going out and making a five-fold bond. Their original intent was to experiment with and observe the element chromium.

  Chromium-based compounds, which sometimes form as dark red crystals, were synthesized and later studied. Power and Nguyen observed the effects of the compound when it was exposed to room temperature, water and air. Although all the results proved interesting, the most surprising outcome occurred when they joined the chromium atoms with some carbon-based molecules.

  After data was collected using magnetism and X-ray crystallography, the team was surprised to see that the chromium atoms bonded with each other. That is, instead of sharing one or two pairs of electrons as they were previously known to, these atoms shared five pairs, an occurrence that was unheard of until now.

  Peter Klavins of the UC Davis physics department was involved with the magnetic measurements of the compounds.

  "We did a lot of preliminary measurements," Klavins said. "The chemistry department sometimes needs an occasional measurement of the magnetization of their materials. They just get the material over and we have a SQUID magnetometer. It's very powerful and high and can read very sensitive measurements."

  One of the main problems the team had to deal with was the decomposition the compounds underwent when exposed to air. "Once they're exposed to air, they decompose and what you think you're measuring is no longer a compound. We helped them out and provided them a sample holder that can seal the air and the whole system."

  Sealed under a vacuum to keep out air and impurities that might come from the handlers themselves, the data from the physics department was carefully sorted out and given to the chemistry department.

  James Fettinger, a professor of crystallography at UC Davis, dealt with the X-raying of the element and became involved early on. He said the original ambitions of the project were relatively simple.

  "Basically, we took a sample, we put it on a sensitive instrument that can X-ray information ... and we determined the molecular structure."

  "From that, we could understand more about why the material behaves the way it does and how it behaves in a certain way," he added. "The chromium bond had other reactions as well and we were looking to see if it could react with other things."

  "After enough data was gathered, the team sent the information to UC Davis theorist Marcin Brynda, who does molecular orbital calculations and was able to show that there was an interaction of five," Fettinger said.

  To the team, however, the five-fold bond was just a charming surprise.

  "These things just happen; it's not like we strived to get a five-fold reaction," Fettinger said. "It was just a side-effect type of reaction. The interesting thing was that the molecule turned out to be what the molecule was, which was what the graduate student wanted to know in the first place."

  The most interesting part of the discovery, according to Fettinger, was that the bond was so short, which forced the type of reaction in the first place.

  For the average student, however, this accomplishment might sound a little obscure, but noteworthy nonetheless.

  "With the five-fold bonds, we have more research to do about stability, and new properties to determine, like the melting point and ductility," said Van Vuong, a freshman chemistry major at UC Davis. "It's just exciting because it's new and we are the ones who did it."

  Although cautious of the magnitude of this reaction, Fettinger agrees about the exciting implications.

  "Anything beyond three was considered 'pushing the limit.' This opens your mind to greater possibilities."

LYNN LA can be reached at science@californiaaggie.com.