this post was submitted on 12 Jun 2023
28 points (100.0% liked)
Science
13032 readers
2 users here now
Studies, research findings, and interesting tidbits from the ever-expanding scientific world.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
Be sure to also check out these other Fediverse science communities:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Glad to meet other people interested in stem :) I'm a physicist who used to work in quantum chemistry (not anymore though sadly).
It is impossible to reproduce the wavefunction of a molecule in another molecule. Even the addition of a single hydrogen or electron changes the wavefunction. What you call molecular orbitals of benzene are the approximate solutions of stationary state Schrodinger equation that have somewhat fixed energy. They even change during the course of a reaction.
It is impossible to recreate that without the exact same molecule. Instead what the authors have done is to reproduce something that has similar shape and symmetry as the homo/lumo of benzene. It will never react like benzene. Instead what it will do is to let us study how an electron would behave on benzene using all the awesome tools you have available for surfaces which is pretty amazing.
Great point, I wish everyone understood how applied physics is chem and applied chem is bio. As this allows for dissection of events.
Exactly, all of it is just a hierarchy of abstractions. That interconnectedness is usually lost in how these subjects are taught in school.