‘Nanolympiadane’ created from supramolecular building blocks
A self-assembly approach has enabled the synthesis of large interlocked rings including a structure that resembles the Olympic logo
‘Nanolympiadane’ – a nanoscale assembly composed of five interlocked toroids resembling the Olympic logo – is one of the latest supramolecular polycatenanes assembled using only weak noncovalent interactions.1 Through a clever solvent-mixing strategy, researchers have been able to prepare self-assembled structures containing up to 22 rings using simple building blocks. The new catenanes are large enough to be observed using atomic force microscopy and could find applications in materials science.