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New Form of "Mobius" Carbon Predicted
KentuckyFC writes "We've seen carbon nanotubes, buckyballs, and chickenwire. Now materials scientists have created a computer model of a Mobius strip fashioned from strips of graphene — a molecule that would have a single surface and only one edge. (Other groups have made Mobius-like organic molecules but never out of carbon sheets.) The model allows the researchers to determine the physical and chemical properties of the molecules and how these depend on the number of twists in the strip. The team says, for example, that 'Mobius carbon' should be stable to temperatures of at least 500 Kelvin (abstract). But the most exciting prediction is that strips with an odd number of half twists should have a dipole moment that would cause them to self-organize into a crystal. That implies that there's a new type of carbon made entirely of Mobius strips ready to be made by any chemists with a good supply of graphene (maybe these guys)."
When they can produce a Klein Bottle I will be impressed. Still not sure either will be be useful, but I will be impressed.
I think you could make a molecular Klein bottle, though of course you would have the same limitation as for any Klein bottle immersed in three dimensions- a self-intersection would be necessary. This would probably rule out a physically realizable Klein bottle made purely out of graphene, as a self-intersection would either involve carbon atoms bonding to 5 or 6 other carbon atoms (extraordinarily unlikely) or bonds with significant angle strain and steric hindrance if you tried to squeeze the self-intersecting tube through the lattice instead of bonding to it. If you didn't mind including some higher-valent atoms rather than just carbon, it could probably be constructed.
"FDA staff reviewers expressed concern about the number of patients who were left out of the study because they died."