I wrote to Grubbs at Caltech. His office at Moo U in the late 60s was opposite the T-60 NMR room. Folks on both sides of that corridor have gone places. No reply as yet.
Little's proposal has been debated and dismissed on paper. Nobody has tried it. Theory predicts what it is told to predict. If Little had theoretical basis for his proposal sufficient to pass peer review, we should honor it by doing the now cheap and easy experiment.
It's not a big deal. Polycyclic aromatic aldehyde in the benzoin condensation, oxidize to the benzil (e.g., with nitric acid), methylenate both carbonyls. The aldehydes are obtained by oxidizing methyl aromatics or formylating the parent hydrcarbons. Trivial. Yields will be high in every step.
H2C=C(R)-C(R)=CH2 goes to
[=C(R)-C(R)=]n + H2C=CH2
with very large "n." It's a living polymer system. Cap the living end with a sulfur and it spontaneously bonds to a gold surface like densely packed grass, sticking straight up. Why go to all that hassle for a conductivity test?
The simple test is merely a magnet and the Meissner effect. If the goo shoots out of the pot when brought near a magnet, bingo.
If all the HOMO electrons are Cooper-pair condensed, there will be no accessible chemistry. No electron can be diddled unless they all are. The stuff will have astounding physical properties until as a whole pushed out of its superconducting state.
Enviro-whiners will scream about "persistence."
