Hexamethylenetetramine (HMT), C₆H₁₂N₄, has been known for over 130 years. It was the first organic molecule on which X-ray crystallography was performed and it was found to have tetrahedral symmetry. The infrared (IR) and Raman spectra of the solid and infrared spectra of the gas have been reported and the small number of observed fundamentals is in accord with the high degree of symmetry of this molecule. The IR spectral properties and photochemistry of HMT, especially frozen in H₂O ice, are of astronomical interest, as it may comprise a portion of interstellar ice grains, icy satellites, and the organic crust of comets.

Above is a representation of the HMT molecule. The red spheres are nitrogen atoms, the black spheres are carbon atoms, and the white hydrogen. Each nitrogen has three bonds to carbon, and each carbon has two bonds to nitrogen atoms and two bonds to hydrogen atoms.

Do you need to know more? If so please look at our paper that was published in The Journal of Physcial Chemistry, the abstact of which is reproduced here.