Scientists Create Olympicene Molecule, Smallest Possible Five-Ringed Structure
Posted on May 28, 2012
Scientists have created and imaged the smallest possible five-ringed structure. The molecule olympicene is about 1.2 nanometers wide - about 100,000 times thinner than a human hair. The molecule forms the shape of the five Olympic rings.
A collaboration between the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the University of Warwick and IBM Research used a combination of synthetic chemistry and state-of-the-art imaging techniques to build olympicene.
BM scientist Dr. Leo Gross says, "The key to achieving atomic resolution was an atomically sharp and defined tip apex as well as the very high stability of the system. We prepared our tip by deliberately picking up single atoms and molecules and showed that it is the foremost tip atom or molecule that governs the contrast and resolution of our AFM measurements."
Take a look: