Researchers at King’s College London have identified an unusual new form of aluminum, one of the most abundant metals in Earth’s crust. The discovery points to a much less expensive and more sustainable substitute for rare earth metals that are widely used in modern technology and industry.
Dr. Clare Bakewell, a senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, led the study. Her team created highly reactive aluminum-based molecules capable of breaking some of the strongest chemical bonds. Their findings, published in Nature Communications, also describe molecular structures that have never been observed before, opening the door to new types of chemical reactivity.
A central achievement of the research is the first reported example of a cyclotrialumane. This compound consists of three aluminum atoms linked together in a triangular arrangement. The three-atom structure shows an unusual level of reactivity while remaining intact when dissolved in different solutions.
That stability allows it to participate in a variety of chemical processes. Among them are the splitting of dihydrogen and the controlled insertion and chain growth of ethene, a 2-carbon hydrocarbon that serves as a key building block in chemical manufacturing.
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