From cylindrical nanotubes to the hole spheres generally known as buckyballs, carbon is legendary for forming tiny, complicated nanostructures (SN: 8/15/19). Now, scientists have added a brand new geometry to the checklist: a twisted strip referred to as a Möbius carbon nanobelt.
Möbius strips are twisted bands which might be well-known in arithmetic for his or her bizarre properties. A rubber band, for instance, has an inside and an outdoor. But should you minimize the rubber band crosswise, twist one finish and glue it again collectively, you get a Möbius strip, which has just one face (SN: 7/24/07).
In 2017, researchers created carbon nanobelts, skinny loops of carbon which might be like tiny slices of a carbon nanotube. That feat urged it may be potential to create a nanobelt with a twist, a Möbius carbon nanobelt. To make the itsy-bitsy twisty carbon, a number of the identical researchers stitched collectively particular person smaller molecules utilizing a sequence of 14 chemical reactions, chemist Yasutomo Segawa of the Institute for Molecular Science in Okazaki, Japan, and colleagues report May 19 in Nature Synthesis.
While carbon nanotubes can be utilized to make new kinds of laptop chips and added to textiles to create cloth with uncommon properties, scientists don’t but know of any sensible functions for the twisty nanobelts (SN: 8/28/19; SN: 2/8/19). But, Segawa says, the work improves scientists’ skill to make tiny carbon buildings, particularly sophisticated ones.