Scientists made a Möbius strip out of a tiny carbon nanobelt:
From cylindrical nanotubes to the hollow spheres known as buckyballs, carbon is famous for forming tiny, complex nanostructures (SN: 8/15/19). Now, scientists have added a new geometry to the list: a twisted strip called a Möbius carbon nanobelt.
In 2017, researchers created carbon nanobelts, thin loops of carbon that are like tiny slices of a carbon nanotube. That feat suggested it might be possible to create a nanobelt with a twist, a Möbius carbon nanobelt. To make the itsy-bitsy twisty carbon, some of the same researchers stitched together individual smaller molecules using a series 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 used to make new types of computer chips and added to textiles to create fabric with unusual properties, scientists don't yet know of any practical applications for the twisty nanobelts (SN: 8/28/19; SN: 2/8/19). But, Segawa says, the work improves scientists' ability to make tiny carbon structures, especially complicated ones.
Journal Reference:
Yasutomo Segawa et al., Synthesis of a Möbius carbon nanobelt, Nat. Synth (2022). DOI: https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-022-00075-8
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Sunday June 05 2022, @08:42AM (3 children)
Are they spending valuable research moolah just for fun? What does this get with the exception of your group’s name in the press and (maybe) a paper?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by c0lo on Sunday June 05 2022, @09:32AM
Fundamental research into chemical synthesis methods, for one.
Second, you never know what new things you're going to find if you don't try to get out of the beaten paths. Sterical hindrance [wikipedia.org] is a thing, and a nano-mobius band is a heck of a sterical configuration - who knows what reactions such a structure can catalyze?
Here's a(n original?) method to get sodium metal [youtube.com] at mild temperature conditions from one heck of a dedicated youtuber - turns out sterical hindrance plays quite a big role.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by requerdanos on Sunday June 05 2022, @11:18PM
Of what use is a newborn baby [speakingofresearch.com]?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 06 2022, @04:26AM
Scientists should be looking at commercially viable research, such as this BMW changing color technology [youtube.com]. Carbon blah blah nano blah is just lining some shitty scientist's pocket with $65k/yr 2yr contract.
(Score: 3, Informative) by c0lo on Sunday June 05 2022, @10:02AM (6 children)
It's not 10.1126/science.aam8158 - Synthesis of a carbon nanobelt [science.org], its 10.1038/s44160-022-00075-8 - Synthesis of a Möbius carbon nanobelt [nature.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday June 05 2022, @11:33AM (5 children)
Good catch - thank you. It is also wrong in the source material!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday June 05 2022, @01:09PM (4 children)
A little bit of pedantry at the end of a weekend can't hurt, I reckon
No, it's not - it's the first link in the "Citation" section - that is where I picked it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday June 05 2022, @01:29PM (3 children)
If you look at the printed link from the bottom of the source (https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-022-00075-8) you will notice that it is not the same as the stated DOI, which is "doi: 10.1038/s44160-022-00075-8."
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday June 05 2022, @01:52PM (2 children)
It's still a citation, just not via DOI but direct to the article on the Nature.
To pick the actual DOI link, you open the article and click the "Cite this article" link, which gets to https://www.nature.com/articles/s44160-022-00075-8#citeas, [nature.com] which in turn says the DOI linky to use is https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-022-00075-8 [doi.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Sunday June 05 2022, @02:54PM (1 child)
Yes, I know how to do it, but the citation is pulled out by software which appears to be looking for 'DOI' - not unreasonably, that is what it found
We have updated the released story. Thanks again.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday June 05 2022, @03:46PM
FTFY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05 2022, @01:20PM (2 children)
I'm waiting for the Möbius diamond nanobelt. (grin)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Sunday June 05 2022, @02:25PM (1 child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU9_Irda0Dw [youtube.com]
On the topic of your expectations, get that world nano-boxing championship going.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 05 2022, @05:43PM
I wanted a diamond grit abrasive for my nano belt-sander/grinder. It's difficult to get that tiny belt over the two drums, so the Möbius belt would last twice as long, since all the surface area is on one side.
(Score: 2) by legont on Monday June 06 2022, @02:42AM
If they could cut the belt around, they would end up with very interesting structures.
Another project is to make a sphere, cut a hole in it, and stitch the belt into it. Yet another one is to cut two holes in a sphere and stitch a nanotube into it. Once mastered, the two techniques would allow them to create any topological structure imaginable. Yes, there is a proof.
Once we have a tech to make any topology, the desirable properties of new materials could be simply calculated in advance.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.