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December 2003
Infinite variety: Möbius chemistry
Most objects, like spheres, cubes or planes, have two sides. Inside/outside, or front/back. Möbius bands are an exception. These shapes were the model for the familiar infinity sign (∞). The mathematical properties of the two-dimensional one-sided Möbius strip were discovered in 1858 by Johann Benedict Listing, weeks before August Ferdinand Möbius achieved the same thing. Möbius shapes are evident in a number of human pursuits. In music Bach's Crab Canon, in literature Nabokov's The Gift and in the visual arts some of Escher's works lay claim to such properties, and now chemistry joins the fun. In 1964 Heilbronner predicted that it should be possible to synthesize Möbius-like twisted annulene molecules, and that they would be aromatic. The synthesis has been attempted many times and scores of papers have been published predicting the properties of these compounds. Now at last stable Möbius twisted [4n] annulenes have been produced, and Heilbronner's predictions confirmed.
Synthesis of a M�bius aromatic hydrocarbon
D. AJAMI, O. OECKLER, A. SIMON & R. HERGES
Nature 426, 819–821 (2003); doi:10.1038/nature02224
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Organic chemistry: Aromatics do the twist
DAVID M. LEMAL
For nearly 40 years, organic chemists have been fascinated by the idea
of aromatic molecules that have the topology of a M�bius strip. No such
molecule has been isolated — until now.
Nature 426, 776–777 (2003); doi:10.1038/426776a
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