¶ van’t Hoff
Index Entry
van’t Hoff:
“Late in the nineteenth century the organic chemists led by van’t Hoff discovered that all organic chemistry is tetrahedrally configured. In all the structuring we know of in organic chemistry-- plastics or gasolines or what-have-you-- the atoms form molecules by little tetrahedral arrangements: tetrahedra point-to-point (univalent), tetrahedra edge-to-edge (bivalent), tetrahedra face-to-face ((trivalent), or congruent tetrahedra (quadrivalent). These are the primary bondings. The range goes from C (carbon), which is relatively light, to C₄ (carbonaceous diamond), which is quadrivalent: four points of the tetrahedra are congruent with one another.”
¶ Citations
- Conceptuality of Fundamental Structures (Kepes), p.72, 1965
