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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Molecular ‘Möbius strip’ gives carbon a twist

An iconic rotated structure is created from hexagons of carbon atoms.
Snapshots of the twist in a Möbius carbon nanobelt at six different time points.

The ‘twist’ in a Möbius strip that is composed of atoms of carbon (red and blue; artist’s impression) and hydrogen (white) moves halfway around the strip in 100 picoseconds, or one-trillionth of a second. Credit: Kenichiro Itami, Nagoya University

Chemists have created the first carbon molecule that twists to form a ‘Möbius strip’ — a belt-shaped structure that attaches to itself in such a way that if a tiny creature could walk along the surface, it would end up on the opposite face1.

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Nature 606, 10 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01450-3

References

  1. Segawa, Y. et al. Nature Synth. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-022-00075-8 (2022).

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