Platonic hydrocarbon

Platonic hydrocarbons are the molecular representation of platonic solid geometries with vertices replaced by carbon atoms and with edges replaced by chemical bonds. Not all platonic solids have a molecular counterpart:

• Tetravalent carbon excludes an icosahedron (5 faces meeting at each vertex) as a feasible objective;
• Angle strain prohibits an octahedron.

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The following platonic hydrocarbons, on the other hand, have been synthesised:

• Tetrahedrane but only with proper substituents;
• Cubane;
• Dodecahedrane.

Note that with increasing number of carbon atoms in the frame, the geometry will eventually approximate a sphere. This is ultimately accomplished in fullerene although not a Platonic hydrocarbon itself (Buckminsterfullerene, C₆₀, has the shape of a truncated icosahedron, an Archimedean solid).

References

• Henning Hopf, Classics in Hydrocarbon Chemistry, Wiley VCH, 2000.