Cage compound

Under cage compounds is meant polycyclic compounds, which have the form of a cage. These may resemble geometric solids as prismane. Compounds such as tetrahedrane or Cuban possess the geometric shapes of platonic solids and therefore Platonic hydrocarbons are called. Naming is often preferred not IUPAC rules of polycyclic compounds, but trivial names reflect the appearance of the compounds. Due to the thermodynamic instability ( hoop stress, abnormal bond lengths and angles ), the synthesis is often a major challenge Apart from the pure carbon cage compounds there are also cage compounds with hetero elements, especially boron ( carboranes ) and phosphorus as well as pure inorganic agents such as the higher boranes.

The same term is also used for inclusion compounds.