A while ago Chara asked me about whether it was possible to create a molecule that can hold an unbound electron in it somehow. Turns out that there's a name for this: a "molecular electride". An electride is any substance that contains unbound electrons in its structure. Most of the known ones are solids capable of holding unbound electrons somewhere in their lattice. But apparently the possibility of a molecular electride has been studied theoretically, with computer simulation.
Here's a fun possibility, though without a synthesis there's no way to know if this molecule can exist. It's a hexecontafluorobuckminsterfullerene molecule, C60F60, with a single unbound electron at the center. All the fluorines must draw so much electron density away from the center of the molecule to the surface that it leaves a space in the center where an electron can avoid bonding. Hm.
~Alyx
Surely this won't have any consequences.
