Detection and Structure of HOON: Microwave Spectroscopy Reveals an O–O Bond Exceeding 1.9 Å

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1244180
• Publication Date: 2013-12-12T19:16:18Z
• Authors: Kyle N. Crabtree; Marat R. Talipov; Oscar Martinez; Gerard D. O’Connor; Sergey L. Khursan; Michael C. McCarthy
• Keywords: Molecular beam

A Glimpse of HOON Bonds between two oxygen atoms are relatively weak, as manifested in the sometimes explosive reactivity O 2 and various peroxides. Thus, although nitrous acid (HONO) can be rearranged on paper to an isomer with O-O rather than N-O bond, nitrosyl-O-hydroxide (HOON) has been considered too unstable observed. Crabtree et al. (p. 1354 ) used microwave spectroscopy detect formation a dilute gaseous mixture NO OH neon. Isotopic substitutions enabled determination its structure, which included unusually long bond.