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A Molecule We Never Made - Model Kit Activity #1
Featured Molecule
The featured molecule in this model kit activity page is fluorochlorobromoiodomethane. It's a pretty little molecule that chemists have never isolated. We've only seen it with our model kits. Still, it is a useful little molecule. This fact merits an explanation.
Molecular Poesy
This model is a real workhorse; /
It works hard in many a course. /
It helps explain chirality /
And mirror like duality. /
But here's a fact that may dismay; /
It's never seen the light of day. /
This compound we have never made, /
But it is still a classroom aid.
Molecular Prose
Chemistry teachers sometimes use bromochlorofluoroiodomethane models and drawings to exemplify principles of stereochemistry. The compound, however, resists all attempts at its actual isolation. The molecular model is a pretty little model and an effective teacher, so some teachers choose to use it as a stereochemistry example. PubChem, of course, has no problem listing hypothetical compounds. In this page's Virtual Model Kit activity page, you will load this model from PubChem, look up it's PubChem page, convert it to Bromochlorofluoromethane, which is a known compound, and load the known compound's Wikipedia page.
Here is the link to the activity page: Load Activity Page
The featured demo video for this page is a video showing something that you can't see with your eyes.
