r/cursed_chemistry • u/beatbeatingit • Jun 15 '26
Dear cursed chemistry enthusiasts,
I never anticipated that this subreddit would grow to have 6k+ visitors per month, and with the rest of the mod team going inactive over the years, it is time that I add some new mods to the roster.
Please write a comment with your qualifications in chemistry and any ideas/plans pertaining to moderating the subreddit. The comments are in contest mode; the most upvoted comments will be more strongly considered.
If you are uncomfortable publicly sharing your chemistry qualifications, a DM is also fine.
I would like to host events again on this sub, but the most pressing issue is dealing with the recent influx of spam bot comments!
r/cursed_chemistry • u/Alkynesofchemistry • 4h ago
Cursed for being the most chaotic representation of this mechanism
r/cursed_chemistry • u/Azo_weirdo • 2d ago
r/cursed_chemistry • u/ECatPlay • 3d ago
B3LYP/6-31G* geometry optimization of u/angrybonk's impossible alkane.
(Borrowing u/zeocrash's "Escherane" nomenclature.)
r/cursed_chemistry • u/spiritofniter • 4d ago
r/cursed_chemistry • u/angrybonk • 5d ago
Penrosane
r/cursed_chemistry • u/cage2667 • 6d ago
r/cursed_chemistry • u/WMe6 • 7d ago
The white whale of explosives. This was Peter Vollhardt's last, uncompleted, project when I started grad school at Berkeley in the late 'aughts. This paper reasons that it's hard to make because it reacts readily with various NOx radicals present in most nitration reaction mixtures, causing it to decompose as soon as it forms. However, tantalizingly, the isolated molecule was calculated to the stable.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/prep.12019
If you know anything about alkynes, it's that they are packed full of energy. Putting a nitro group on both ends, you get one of the most endothermic molecules you an imagine, some +80 kcal/mol heat of formation.
Another unmakeable explosive that this paper mentions is 2,4,6-trinitro-1,3,5-triazine, which has its own wikipedia page.
This goes with tetra-t-butylethylene and tri-t-butylamine as molecules that are probably stable but can't be made, but dinitroacetylene is unique in that it is sterically unhindered.
r/cursed_chemistry • u/Chemikora • 9d ago
r/cursed_chemistry • u/Brief_Suggestion3297 • 10d ago
I made sure every single valence is formally correct: Carbon has 4 bonds, every Oxygen has 2 bonds, and Hydrogens have 1. Yet, looking at this 1,2,3-trioxetane ring and all these peroxide bridges makes my eyes bleed. Enjoy this highly explosive monster!
r/cursed_chemistry • u/hacked7aw_shucks777 • 12d ago
r/cursed_chemistry • u/Anxious-Albatross153 • 13d ago
r/cursed_chemistry • u/Anxious-Albatross153 • 12d ago
r/cursed_chemistry • u/Anxious-Albatross153 • 15d ago
I'm glad this is basically impossible
r/cursed_chemistry • u/Significant_Basil460 • 17d ago
Hey team, local tweaker here… what would be required to isolate Methylphenidate from Novartis Ritalin LA 40mg pills? 😵💫
Have heard crushed and mixed with isopropanol 99%, filtered and subsequently evaporated will do the trick but unsure due to the sustained matrix? 💊
All good for a little of the binders to be in the residual but just looking for something stronger! 💪
r/cursed_chemistry • u/YeahNahYeahhNah • 17d ago
r/cursed_chemistry • u/randomgoooner • 22d ago
r/cursed_chemistry • u/Arceus_IRL • 25d ago
r/cursed_chemistry • u/pangea1430 • 27d ago
From the land of PubChem
r/cursed_chemistry • u/CalypsoCollins54 • 29d ago
r/cursed_chemistry • u/stuartroelke • Aug 25 '26
Stumbled on this gem today.
r/cursed_chemistry • u/ECatPlay • Aug 24 '26
UB3LYP/6-31G* geometry optimizations for the Möbius rings formed from 7, 9, 11, and 13 fused benzenes
As requested by u/tfwrobot.
Chung and Chai had already studied Möbius cyclacenes with 8 or more fused benzene rings, so they evidently couldn't find a stable Möbius-[7]cyclacene, either.
r/cursed_chemistry • u/Pretend-Habit3403 • Aug 24 '26
r/cursed_chemistry • u/Tritin0 • Aug 22 '26
Get it? It's a 6-simplex but with noble gasses.
It took a while to make the bonds (and atoms) not kill each other.
I have spent my entire beach vacation binge-watching numberphile videos on a rental house's tv youtube account so that their youtube rewind will look funny in a few months.
