Epic Quest Bio The case files
Case No. 114 · the exotic forty · have you seen this molecule?

Triangulene

predicted in 1953, made one molecule at a time in 2017

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

Triangulene, front view, against a height chart in nanometers
FRONT
Triangulene, side view
SIDE · CID 102378663

The suspect, from its real atomic coordinates. Drag to turn it. Height chart in nanometers, ruled every 0.05 nm. Mugshot: a computer model. A roadside yield sign is about a billion times wider.

Rap sheet

Answers to
Triangulene. Aliases: Clar’s hydrocarbon, [3]triangulene.
Height
0.93 nm, standing on edge.
Weight
0.46 zeptograms
Build
22 carbons, six hexagons, one flat triangle.
Spin
1. Both leftover electrons point the same way.
Suspected
By Erich Clar, 1953. His report: “complete polymerization.”
Habits
On salt it won’t sit still: a triangle on a square floor keeps turning.
Associates
Its precursors now come by the gram. It still comes one at a time.
Last seen
On bare gold near absolute zero, under a microscope tip, near Zurich.
2

unpaired electrons in every one: no Kekulé structure pairs them all.
You’ve never seen one.

CASE FILE: Pavliček, N. et al. (2017) Synthesis and characterization of triangulene. Nature Nanotechnology 12, 308–311.

The poster on the street

The wanted poster for Triangulene

This is the photocopied wanted poster for Triangulene, No. 114 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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