Special Cases
Pi bonds do not necessarily connect a pair of atoms that are also sigma-bonded.
In certain metal complexes, pi interactions between a metal atom and alkyne and alkene pi antibonding orbitals form pi-bonds.
In some cases of multiple bonds between two atoms, there is no sigma bond at all, only pi bonds. Examples include diiron hexacarbonyl (Fe2(CO)6), dicarbon (C2), and the borane B2H2. In these compounds the central bond consists only of pi bonding, and in order to achieve maximum orbital overlap the bond distances are much shorter than expected.
Read more about this topic: Pi Bond
Famous quotes containing the words special and/or cases:
“The books may say that nine-month-olds crawl, say their first words, and are afraid of strangers. Your exuberantly concrete and special nine-month-old hasnt read them. She may be walking already, not saying a word and smiling gleefully at every stranger she sees. . . . You can support her best by helping her learn what shes trying to learn, not what the books say a typical child ought to be learning.”
—Amy Laura Dombro (20th century)
“And in cases where profound conviction has been wrought, the eloquent man is he who is no beautiful speaker, but who is inwardly drunk with a certain belief. It agitates and tears him, and perhaps almost bereaves him of the power of articulation.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)