"What's peculiar about the half-Möbius molecule is that a chain of atoms is twisted by only 90° to make the loop, instead of a full 180°. The results are described in a Science paper published on 5 March."
"90° is fun, says study co-author Igor Rončevic, a theoretical chemist at the University of Manchester, UK, because it can twist either left or right. The two versions differ in what chemists call chirality - meaning that, like left and right-handed gloves, they are distinct from their mirror images."
"In the latest paper, the team created a loop of 13 carbon atoms, two of which, at opposite sides of the circle, are bound to a chlorine atom. This leaves 11 carbon atoms that link directly to their neighbouring carbons."
Researchers have created a half-Möbius molecule, a carbon-based structure inspired by the mathematical Möbius strip. Unlike traditional Möbius strips that require a 180° twist, this molecule features only a 90° twist in its atomic chain. The structure consists of a 13-carbon atom loop with chlorine atoms at opposite sides and conjugated electron orbitals. The 90° twist creates chirality, meaning the molecule exists in two distinct mirror-image forms that twist either clockwise or counterclockwise. This represents an unprecedented molecular architecture and marks a significant advancement in synthetic chemistry.
#mobius-strip-molecules #carbon-based-structures #molecular-chirality #synthetic-chemistry #conjugated-systems
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