A staffane or taffane is an

organic compound Some chemical authorities define an organic compound as a chemical compound that contains a carbon–hydrogen or carbon–carbon bond; others consider an organic compound to be any chemical compound that contains carbon. For example, carbon-co ...

, a polycyclic

hydrocarbon In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and Hydrophobe, hydrophobic; their odor is usually fain ...

with molecular structure H- C≡(-CH₂-)₃≡C-sub>''n''-H, for some integer ''n'' ≥ 1. The chemical formula is therefore C_5''n''H_6''n''+2 Staffanes were first obtained in 1988 by Piotr Kaszyński and Josef Michl, by spontaneous

polymerization In polymer chemistry, polymerization (American English), or polymerisation (British English), is a process of reacting monomer molecules together in a chemical reaction to form polymer chains or three-dimensional networks. There are many fo ...

of .1.1propellane C₅H₆ or C₂(=CH₂)₃. In the reaction, the axial C-C bond of the propellane (the "bridge") is broken, creating a free bond on each of the two axial

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...

s (the "bridgeheads"). The resulting structural unit C≡(-CH₂-)₃≡C-is a rigid cage, consisting of two carbon atoms joined by three methylene bridges; therefore the joined units are constrained to lie on a straight line. This feature has generated substantial interest among

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

researchers, who have considered staffane oligomers as convenient "rigid rods" for building all sorts of nanostructures. An oligomer with a specific number ''n'' of units is denoted by 'n''taffane (e.g., taffane, taffane, etc..) The notation taffane is used when the number of units is variable or unspecified; in this case the "n" in the brackets is not a variable, but the letter "n", considered part of the name.

References

{{Reflist Polycyclic nonaromatic hydrocarbons