Has anyone sysnthesized perfluorocubane (AKA octafluorocubane)?

Up until now, there have been attempts at synthesizing octafluorocubane, shown below, but success has been elusive.


[![C8F8 from https://www.science.org/do/10.1126/a9b6212c-ea5f-46c5-af6f-ef3d2d1893f0/full/octafluorocubane.png](https://i.stack.imgur.com/39F2D.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/39F2D.jpg)


Has there been any success, and how might the symmetry and fluorine's electron affinity affect its properties?




[*Caveat*: This is not so much a question-and-answer as a desire to share Derek Lowe's article in his inimitable style. Given enough down-votes, I'll delete both Q-&-A. But enjoy the synthesis summary, cited below!]


Yes! The synthesis of perfluorocubane (or octafluorocubane, if you prefer) [*has* been accomplished](https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abq0516), as described by [Derek Lowe](https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/perfluorocubane-you-would-expect-weird), "[I]t is predicted to have the ability to hold a free electron in the middle of that cube (!) That's because of the C-F bond properties - all the electron density is being pulled towards the F atoms, so the center of the cube really has room for one to sit in there without running into a lot of interference... [T]here are eight sigma-star orbitals from those C-F bonds all pointing into the center of the cage and overlapping, and giving you effectively a stabilized vacant orbital there."


Get more details in [Lowe's article](https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/perfluorocubane-you-would-expect-weird)!


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