Call me a sad git, but I find myself entranced by this: that Kurotobi and Murata (at Kyoto University) report successfully opening large job lots of buckyballs, stuffing a single molecule of water into each, then clicking the traps shut again.
“Water normally exists in hydrogen-bonded environments, but a single molecule of H2O without any hydrogen bonds can be completely isolated within the confined subnano space inside fullerene C60. We isolated bulk quantities of such a molecule by first synthesizing an open-cage C60 derivative whose opening can be enlarged in situ at 120°C that quantitatively encapsulated one water molecule under the high-pressure conditions. The relatively simple method was developed to close the cage and encapsulate water.”
My associated mental image is of an manically overpopulated PacMan screen...
- Kei Kurotobi & Yasujiro Murata, "A Single Molecule of Water Encapsulated in Fullerene C60", Science 29 July 2011: Vol. 333 no. 6042 pp. 613-616DOI: 10.1126/science.1206376
1 comment:
Every time I read this post I feel the urge to burp.
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