Electronic Transmutation (ET): Chemically Turning One Element into Another

Xinxing Zhang; Katie A Lundell; Jared K Olson; Kit H Bowen; Alexander I Boldyrev

doi:10.1002/chem.201800517

Electronic Transmutation (ET): Chemically Turning One Element into Another

Chemistry. 2018 Jul 2;24(37):9200-9210. doi: 10.1002/chem.201800517. Epub 2018 Apr 19.

Authors

Xinxing Zhang¹, Katie A Lundell², Jared K Olson², Kit H Bowen³, Alexander I Boldyrev²

Affiliations

¹ Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, P. R. China.
² Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Utah State University, 0300 Old Main Hill, Logan, UT, 84322-0300, USA.
³ Departments of Chemistry and Material Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA.

PMID: 29518278
DOI: 10.1002/chem.201800517

Abstract

The concept of electronic transmutation (ET) depicts the processes that by acquiring an extra electron, an element with the atomic number Z begins to have properties that were known to only belong to its neighboring element with the atomic number Z+1. Based on ET, signature compounds and chemical bonds that are composed of certain elements can now be designed and formed by other electronically transmutated elements. This Minireview summarizes the recent developments and applications of ET on both the theoretical and experimental fronts. Examples on the ET of Group 13 elements into Group 14 elements, Group 14 elements into Group 15 elements, and Group 15 elements into Group 16 elements are discussed. Compounds and chemical bonding composed of carbon, silicon, germanium, phosphorous, oxygen and sulfur now have analogues using transmutated boron, aluminum, gallium, silicon, nitrogen, and phosphorous.

Keywords: anions; chemical bonding; electronic transmutation; global minimum; photoelectron spectroscopy.

Publication types

Review