Chicken wire (chemistry)

In chemistry the term chicken wire is used in different contexts. Most of them relate to the similarity of the regular hexagonal (honeycomb-like) patterns found in certain chemical compounds to the mesh structure commonly seen in real chicken wire.

Buckminster­fullerene "Bucky ball" with a chicken wire-like chemical structure
Chicken wire

Examples

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or graphenes—including fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphite—have a hexagonal structure that is often described as chicken wire-like.[1][2][3]

Hydrogen bonded (dashed) complex between melamine (blue) and cyanuric acid (red)

Hexagonal molecular structures

A hexagonal structure that is often described as chicken wire-like can also be found in other types of chemical compounds such as:

Hydrogen-bonded "chicken wire" of boric acid.
A molecule drawn in "chicken wire notation". This molecule is named tetrahydrocannabinol and is found in Marijuana.

Additional information

Bond line notation

The skeletal formula is a method to draw structural formulas of organic compounds where lines represent the chemical bonds and the vertices represent implicit carbon atoms.[9] This notation is sometimes jestingly called chicken wire notation.[10][11][12]

Placeholder for organic compounds

Chicken wire is sometimes used as a placeholder name for any organic compound, similar to the use of the name John Doe.

Chemical structure of the fictional molecule 1,2-dimethyl-chickenwire

Chemical joke

It is an old joke in chemistry to draw a polycyclic hexagonal chemical structure and call this fictional compound chickenwire. By adding one or two simple chemical groups to this skeleton, the compound can then be named following the official chemical naming convention. Examples are:

A "chicken wire surface plot" of n,n-Dimethyltryptamine

Surface plots

In computational chemistry a chicken wire model or chicken wire surface plot is a way to visualize molecular models by drawing the polygon mesh of their surface (defined e.g. as the van der Waals radius or a certain electron density). [13]

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References
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  2. "General Chemistry Online: Glossary". Antoine.frostburg.edu. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  3. "Space Chemicals: Scientific American". Sciam.com. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  4. "Get Healthy...Get Smart". Gethealthygetsmart.com. Archived from the original on 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  5. (PDF) http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/zimmerman/papers/63.pdf. Retrieved February 3, 2005. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. Andrew D. Burrows (2004). "Crystal Engineering Using Multiple Hydrogen Bonds". Structure and Bonding. 108: 55–96. doi:10.1007/b14137. ISBN 978-3-540-20084-0. ISSN 0081-5993.
  7. Axtell Ea, 3rd; Liao, JH; Kanatzidis, MG (October 1998). "Flux Synthesis of LiAuS and NaAuS: "Chicken-Wire-Like" Layer Formation by Interweaving of (AuS)(n)(n)(-) Threads. Comparison with alpha-HgS and AAuS (A = K, Rb)". Inorg Chem. 37 (21): 5583–5587. doi:10.1021/ic980360b. PMID 11670705.
  8. http://bio.winona.msus.edu/wilson/cell%20biology/unit3revANSWER.doc%5B%5D
  9. Template Archived November 30, 2004, at the Wayback Machine
  10. "Chem 32 Virtual Manual". Kalee.tock.com. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  11. "Stereochemistry and Chirality Part I Problems". Kalee.tock.com. 1995-11-07. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  12. "Chem 32 Virtual Manual". Kalee.tock.com. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
  13. "MolScript v2.1: Interface to external objects". Avatar.se. Archived from the original on 2013-07-22. Retrieved 2013-11-24.
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