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A molecule can be a calculated energy minimum and still fall apart too quickly to make or isolate. A 2024 computational study predicts that quantum tunnelling makes 26% of a defined set of 73 hypothetical tricyclic benzene isomers unsynthesizable. The finding is about those candidate structures and the authors’ calculations—not proof that every unusual benzene isomer is impossible.
What the study examined
Benzene has the formula C6H6, and that formula permits structures other than the familiar six-membered ring. Rodríguez and Kozuch assessed the kinetic stability of 73 hypothetical tricyclic benzene isomers: structures containing three rings. Their paper, “Heavy-atom tunnelling in benzene isomers: how many tricyclic species are truly stable?”, was first published in Chemical Science on 5 September 2024. Read the paper.
The question was whether these candidate structures might persist long enough to be synthesized, detected, or isolated. The authors used computational analysis; they did not report synthesizing every structure or experimentally observing each predicted decomposition.
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A conventional picture treats nuclei as if they must climb over an energy barrier to reach a decomposition pathway. Quantum mechanics also allows a particle to pass through a barrier it lacks the classical energy to cross. This is quantum tunnelling.
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In a strained molecular framework, tunnelling by nuclei—including heavy atoms—can provide a route to unimolecular decomposition. A structure may therefore appear to be a local minimum on an energy landscape yet disappear too quickly to be practically made or isolated. That is a question of kinetic stability: how fast it decomposes. It is distinct from thermodynamic stability, which concerns the relative energies of possible states.
What the calculations predict
The headline result applies to the study’s set of 73 hypothetical tricyclic isomers. The authors predict that 26% of molecules previously considered stable are completely unsynthesizable because tunnelling drives decomposition, even close to absolute zero. That percentage is not a general rate or a finding about all possible benzene structures.
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- 26%: predicted to be unsynthesizable because of intrinsic quantum-tunnelling instability.
- Five additional systems: predicted to be detectable, but to degrade slowly.
- Seven additional supposedly stable systems: predicted to break apart through barrierless mechanisms.
These are separate predicted outcomes, not one combined category. In particular, the five systems expected to degrade slowly are not described as immediately impossible to detect.
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Why “stable” depends on conditions
Stability is not necessarily a permanent label for a molecule. The authors note that a species stable at low temperature may become kinetically unstable at higher temperature. A claim about stability therefore needs a temperature context, as well as a definition of the stability criterion being used.
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For their detailed tunnelling analysis, the researchers selected species with a degradation threshold below 60 kJ mol−1, including zero-point energy. They explain that preliminary calculations suggested deep tunnelling was negligible above that cutoff. It is a choice in the study’s method, not a universal boundary separating molecules that can and cannot tunnel.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the result does—and does not—establish
The paper’s conclusion is a computational prediction about a specific collection of hypothetical, strained tricyclic C6H6 structures. It does not establish that every nonstandard benzene isomer, every strained molecule, or every candidate at every temperature is unmakeable. Nor does a predicted local minimum by itself show that a molecule can be isolated: its decomposition speed matters.
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For individual isomer names, lifetimes, or detailed computational conditions, consult the paper’s tables and supplementary information. The headline percentage is best read with its scope attached: some structures in this studied set may be ruled out not because no structure can be drawn for them, but because the calculations predict that tunnelling makes them too short-lived to synthesize.
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