CENtral Science

Molecular Mimics Of The Olympic Rings

This post was written by C&EN reporter Jyllian Kemsley.

In the July 23 print Newscripts column, I wrote about olympicene, a molecule composed of five fused rings that was synthesized by chemists at the University of Warwick and resembles the Olympic rings. Now the Periodic Table of Videos has tackled the subject, and the University of Nottingham’s Martyn Poliakoff ups the ante. Poliakoff says that to truly mimic the Olympic rings, chemists need to interconnect circular molecules rather than fuse them together. He suggests ways that it might be done using catenanes and challenges viewers to make it happen.

Can any Newscripts readers out there think of other ways to make interconnected Olympic ring mimics? Share your ideas here.