Chicken wire (chemistry)
In chemistry, the term chicken wire is used in different contexts. Most of them relate to the similarity of the regular hexagonal (honeycomb-like) patterns found in certain chemical compounds to the mesh structure commonly seen in real chicken wire.
Examples
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons or graphenes—including fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and graphite—have a hexagonal structure that is often described as chicken wire-like.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Hexagonal molecular structures
A hexagonal structure that is often described as chicken wire-like can also be found in other types of chemical compounds such as:
- Non-aromatic polycyclic hydrocarbons, e.g. steroids like cholesterol<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
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- Flat hexagonal hydrogen bonded trimesic acid (benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylic acid),<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> boric acid, or melamine-cyanuric acid complexes<ref name="burrows">Template:Cite journal
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- Interwoven molecule chains in the inorganic polymer NaAuS<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Complexes of the protein clathrin<ref>http://bio.winona.msus.edu/wilson/cell%20biology/unit3revANSWER.docTemplate:Dead link</ref>
Additional information
Bond line notation
The skeletal formula is a method to draw structural formulas of organic compounds where lines represent the chemical bonds and the vertices represent implicit carbon atoms.<ref>Template Template:Webarchive</ref> This notation is sometimes called chicken wire notation by a Stanford professor.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Chemical joke
It is an old joke{{ safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst||date=__DATE__ |$B= Template:Fix }} in chemistry to draw a polycyclic hexagonal chemical structure and call this fictional compound chickenwire.Template:Citation needed By adding one or two simple chemical groups to this skeleton, the compound can then be named following the official chemical naming convention. An example is 1,2-Dimethyl-chickenwire in a cartoon by Nick D. Kim.
Surface plots
In computational chemistry a chicken wire model or chicken wire surface plot is a way to visualize molecular models by drawing the polygon mesh of their surface (defined e.g. as the van der Waals radius or a certain electron density).Template:Citation needed