Quantum tunnelling creates the 'wrong' molecule

Researchers have managed to make a molecule no-one knew how to synthesise - methylhydroxycarbene - and trapped it in an ultra-cold cryogenic argon matrix. But what happened next was unexpected: the target molecule started disappearing.

'That shouldn't be happening because you've got it trapped in argon, surrounded by inert gas molecules,' says author Wesley Allen, a computational chemist at the University of Georgia, US. Allen's 'back of an envelope' calculations confirmed that the carbene couldn't be reacting with other molecules. Nevertheless, not only was the carbene reacting when it shouldn't, but it was giving the 'wrong' product, according to transition state theory - acetaldehyde instead of vinyl alcohol.  More...

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2011/June/10061101.asp