4 ms·

So what was their aroma like?

by cubefox 8mo ago

snitty 8mo ago
In this case aromatic means a ring of atoms where there is electron sharing among all the members of the ring. They're called aromatic rings because before they understood the structure, they grouped them by their behavior, and the aromatics contain a lot of volatile organics like benzene, toluene, phenol, which have strong odors.
- worthless-trash 8mo ago
  I like your explanation without condescension. Respect.
  - snitty 8mo ago
    https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- moffkalast 8mo ago
  So it's not volatile enough to give off a scent?
  - jaggederest 8mo ago
    Massive molecule with a lithium salt on every silicon atom. It's not going to have basically any vapor pressure and thus effectively no aroma unless there are breakdown products
  - jfengel 8mo ago
    Even if it were volatile, you likely wouldn't be able to smell it. The olfactory sense is complicated and weird, and targeted at organic chemistry. You can smell a few inorganic things (notably, elemental osmium, whose name literally means "smell" because that's so unusual), but your receptors are unlikely to trigger for anything that far removed.
    - card_zero 8mo ago
      Doesn't this count as organic? Ferrocene smells of camphor, apparently. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/ferrocene https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/ferrocene
      - jfengel 8mo ago
        It is organic; it's mostly carbon. The presence of a metal atom doesn't make it inorganic. To be inorganic it has to have no carbons (or at least, not in the backbone of the molecule).
- fuzzfactor 8mo ago
  Plain cyclopentadiene is way stronger smelling than any of those. Also dicyclopentadiene which is a higher-"boiling" dimer which often serves as a source of cyclopentadiene by thermal breakdown. The DCPD solidifies at lower room temperatures. It also spontaneously decomposes to an extent so what you are smelling is probably the CPD anyway. General agreement technically is that DCPD is some nasty-smelling shit, one drop on your foot and the shoes are staying outside for the night :\ Interestingly, in very low concentrations it is used in some fragrances as a once-secret ingredient.
- vintermann 8mo ago
  Well yes, but also what do they smell like?
andrewflnr 8mo ago
"Characteristic", no doubt.
analog31 8mo ago
If you know, you're probably dead.

So what was their aroma like?

by cubefox 8mo ago

So what was their aroma like?

In this case aromatic means a ring of atoms where there is electron sharing among all the members of the ring. They're called aromatic rings because before they understood the structure, they grouped them by their behavior, and the aromatics contain a lot of volatile organics like benzene, toluene, phenol, which have strong odors.

worthless-trash 8mo ago
I like your explanation without condescension. Respect.
- snitty 8mo ago
  https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
moffkalast 8mo ago
So it's not volatile enough to give off a scent?
- jaggederest 8mo ago
  Massive molecule with a lithium salt on every silicon atom. It's not going to have basically any vapor pressure and thus effectively no aroma unless there are breakdown products
- jfengel 8mo ago
  Even if it were volatile, you likely wouldn't be able to smell it. The olfactory sense is complicated and weird, and targeted at organic chemistry. You can smell a few inorganic things (notably, elemental osmium, whose name literally means "smell" because that's so unusual), but your receptors are unlikely to trigger for anything that far removed.
  - card_zero 8mo ago
    Doesn't this count as organic? Ferrocene smells of camphor, apparently. https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/ferrocene https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/ferrocene
    - jfengel 8mo ago
      It is organic; it's mostly carbon. The presence of a metal atom doesn't make it inorganic. To be inorganic it has to have no carbons (or at least, not in the backbone of the molecule).
fuzzfactor 8mo ago
Plain cyclopentadiene is way stronger smelling than any of those. Also dicyclopentadiene which is a higher-"boiling" dimer which often serves as a source of cyclopentadiene by thermal breakdown. The DCPD solidifies at lower room temperatures. It also spontaneously decomposes to an extent so what you are smelling is probably the CPD anyway. General agreement technically is that DCPD is some nasty-smelling shit, one drop on your foot and the shoes are staying outside for the night :\ Interestingly, in very low concentrations it is used in some fragrances as a once-secret ingredient.
vintermann 8mo ago
Well yes, but also what do they smell like?

andrewflnr 8mo ago

"Characteristic", no doubt.

analog31 8mo ago

If you know, you're probably dead.