Chemists are fascinated by rotaxanes — a class of compound made from a dumbbell-shaped chemical inside a molecular ring — because such structures could be useful in making microscale machines. Sheng-Hsien Chiu and his colleagues at the National Taiwan University have now created the smallest rotaxane to date (pictured), made from just 76 atoms, with a molecular mass of 510 daltons.
Their ring is a crown ether — a circle of alternating oxygen atoms and ethylene groups — and their dumbell's axle is a dialkylammonium ion. After threading the axle through the ring, grinding the mixture up with a tetrazine caps the axle with pyridazine groups to make the rotaxane.
The scientists hope that they can shave a few atoms off the rotaxane to beat their own record.
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Chemistry: Ro-taxing synthesis. Nature 455, 267 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/455267a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/455267a
