Philip E. Eaton (June 2, 1936 – July 21, 2023) was an American chemist. He served as Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Chicago. Eaton and his fellow researchers were the first to synthesize the "impossible" cubane molecule in 1964.[1][2]
Working with Mao-Xi Zhang he is reported as having been the first to make octanitrocubane (their paper was published in the year 2003). Because of its eight nitro groups and highly strained C-C bonds, octanitrocubane is a very powerful high explosive.
- ^ P. Eaton and T. W. Cole, The Cubane System, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 86 (1964) 962. doi:10.1021/ja01059a072
- ^ P. Eaton and T. W. Cole, Cubane, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 86 (1964) 3157. doi:10.1021/ja01069a041