Imperial College London

Henry Rzepa

The interface between physics, chemistry (and materials science) can be
a fascinating one. Here I show a carbon nanotorus, devised by
physicists\[cite\]10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.217206\[/cite\] a few years
ago. It is a theoretical species, and was predicted to have a *colossal
paramagnetic moment*.

::: {#attachment_4280 .wp-caption .aligncenter style="width: 410px"}
![](http://www.ch.imperial.ac.uk/rzepa/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/carbon-nanotorus.jpg "carbon-nanotorus"){.size-full
.wp-image-4280 loading="lazy" decoding="async"
aria-describedby="caption-attachment-4280"
onclick="jmolInitialize('../Jmol/',true);jmolSetAppletColor('white');jmolApplet([450,450],'load wp-content/uploads/2011/05/t7_4_1364.pdb;cpk -100;zoom 120;moveto 4 0 2 0 90 75;spin 5;');"
width="400" height="401"
srcset="https://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/carbon-nanotorus.jpg 494w, https://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/carbon-nanotorus-150x150.jpg 150w, https://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/rzepa/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/carbon-nanotorus-300x300.jpg 300w"
sizes="(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px"}

Carbon nanotorus. Click for 3D.
:::

At 1364 carbon atoms, it is a little too big to calculate any of its
expected chiroptical properties (the torus twists in a helical manner,
and so is chiral). So we can only speculate whether *e.g.* its optical
rotation would also be colossal! Or, what applications such a nanodevice
might have. This post, by the way, was induced by seeing [Steve
Bachrach's fascinating
exploration](http://comporgchem.com/blog/?p=1561){target="_blank"} of
chiral nanohoops.

 

::: {.wp_orcid_field}
[https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8635-8390](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8635-8390){target="_blank"
rel="author"}
:::


The interface between physics, chemistry (and materials science) can be a fascinating one. Here I show a carbon nanotorus, devised by physicists[cite]10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.217206[/cite] a few years ago. It is a theoretical species, and was predicted to have a
<em>
 colossal paramagnetic moment
</em>
.    Carbon nanotorus.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

Metallic carbon nanotori