Molecular movie in HD

[Loveall]

SLAC has released a movie in HD of 1,3-Cyclohexadiene (a terpinene ring found in pine oil) breaking open after being hit by a laser.

You can see the molecule model move in slow motion just how it did in reality.

[YouTube]

Maybe one day we'll get a movie of DMT moving around, or of it being synthesized, or of it snuggling up to a 5-HT2 receptor, etc.

 

[332211]

as a layman i see the bond between two atoms has been split up.
how can a laser achive that without removing one of the atoms?

 

[Loveall]

as a layman i see the bond between two atoms has been split up.
how can a laser achive that without removing one of the atoms?

The laser excites and breaks the single bond (the one beweewn CH2-CH2 in the ring below). Then the internal single/double bonds between the carbons reorginze themselves to form 1,3,5-hexatriene.

If you go through it I believe this is all that happens,

1) Single C-C bond is broken (-1 bonds)
2) Three single C-C bonds become double C=C bonds (+3 bonds)
3) Two double C=C bonds become single C-C bonds (-2 bonds)

Overall the total number of carbon bonds does not change since -1+3-2=0.

Make sense?

 

[332211]

thanks loveall, with the arithmetic i get it.
the bond is not "broken" (this made me curious,
because than something had to "vanish" from the
molecule) but shifted.

right?

 

[Loveall]

Well I would say that one bond is broken in step 1) but then the molecule rearranges itself to create a new net bond during steps 2) and 3).

Since the bonds are a relationship between electrons no physical particles are being removed. There are a new relationships breaking and forming though. Kind of like in Mexican telenovelas.