Case No. 112 · the exotic forty · have you seen this molecule?

Mobius nanobelt

the molecule with one side

File sealed

The detectives are still writing this one up. The poster and the facts are below; the film and the interrogation room open soon.

Booking photographs

Mobius nanobelt, front view, against a height chart in nanometers — FRONT

Mobius nanobelt, side view — SIDE · DFT model

The suspect, from its real atomic coordinates. Drag to turn it. Height chart in nanometers, ruled every 0.1 nm. A pants belt is about a hundred million times longer. Mugshot: its makers’ computer model, tails trimmed.

Rap sheet

Answers to: (25,25)MCNB. In the paper, just “1.”
Height: 4.1 nm on its long axis.
Weight: 6.6 zeptograms
Topology: One side, one edge. Go once around the outside and you’re inside.
Habits: Walks its twist around the belt; at 140 °C, too fast for NMR to follow.
Handedness: Left or right, from the twist alone.
First seen: Predicted in the 1990s. Made fourteen steps later.
Last seen: Glowing greenish-blue under a UV lamp, in a lab in Japan.

1,900,000,000,000,000,000

of them in the 12.7 mg batch its makers reported.
You’ve never seen one.

CASE FILE: Segawa, Y. et al. (2022) Synthesis of a Möbius carbon nanobelt. Nature Synthesis 1, 535–541.

The poster on the street

This is the photocopied wanted poster for Mobius nanobelt, No. 112 of the exotic forty. They were made for noticeboards around Boston, Cambridge and the rest of the east coast.

Found one? Scan its QR code with your phone. If you're a signed-in player, the sighting goes on your record with +1 XP.

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