Overcoming lability of extremely long alkane carbon-carbon bonds through dispersion forces

The synthesis of alkane hydrocarbons containing extremely long carboncarbon (CC) bonds, the longest observed in alkanes to date, is reported. Long CC bonds are usually weaker than short ones, but these new alkanes are surprisingly stable, with decomposition occurring only above 200 C. Quantum mechanical calculations show that, remarkably, the compounds are stabilized by attractive interactions between bulky groups at either end of the long CC bonds. The stabilizing interactions observed in these compounds could prove useful in the development of new materials that utilize attractive dispersion interactions.