#cyclocarbon

Here's all of my Artfight pieces I did this year! :^D Had a lot of fun!

@ fireghoul @arengnera @nectarishes

@rad-roche / @biomasse-comic

@iguanodont @lanakitaeva @houujin

@metsaahenki @cyclocarbon @odetoscavengers

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@scopnotes @sugabun-arts @j4ck4lope

A highly anticipated new form of carbon has finally arrived on the scene.

Called cyclocarbon, this molecule consists of a ring of 18 carbon atoms. Scientists described it online August 15 in Science. It offers a new face to one of chemistry’s most celebrated elements.

“It’s not every day that you make a new form of carbon,” says chemist Rik Tykwinski. He works in Canada at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Chemists had been trying to create cyclocarbon for a long time. So long that Tykwinski — who wasn’t involved with the new research — had placed a bet about whether it was even possible. He won, he says.

Scientists Say: Graphene

Cyclocarbon joins other molecular forms of the adaptable element, from diamond and graphite to the thin sheets called graphene. There are also tiny spheres known as buckyballs and nano-scale cylinders called carbon nanotubes.

Chemists thought it should be possible to create ring-shaped carbon molecules. But until now, nobody knew what their properties would be, notes physicist Katharina Kaiser. She’s at IBM Research in Zurich, Switzerland. “It’s really amazing that we found it,” she says, “and it’s absolutely great that we could characterize it.”

Kaiser’s team started with molecules of cyclocarbon oxide. These are made of carbon and other atoms. They included groups of carbon monoxide (pairs of carbon and oxygen atoms). Removing the carbon monoxide was a necessary step to create the new ring form of carbon. But that was no easy task. Carbon monoxide helped to stabilize the starting molecule. The researchers managed to pluck off the carbon monoxide groups by zapping the molecule with electricity. They used a specialized tool called an atomic force microscope.

Once the researchers had a bare ring of carbon, they wanted to capture an image of its structure. Again, they used the atomic force microscope. Cyclocarbon reacts easily with other substances — but not table salt. So the team created the new carbon molecule on a salty surface.

Previous research had found hints of cyclocarbon molecules in a gas. But it wasn’t possible to make an image of those molecules. So scientists couldn’t identify the bonds holding the molecule together. Scientists wanted to know if all the bonds were the same length.

The new study resolved that question. It showed that the carbon atoms are held together by alternating long and short bonds.

Cyclocarbon has 18 carbon atoms arranged in a ring, as seen in this simulation. There’s an alternating pattern of long and short bonds between the atoms. CREDIT: IBM Research

That should now help scientists refine the computer calculations used to predict the structures of unknown molecules. “There’s still a big question whether many of these … calculations give the right answer,” says Yves Rubin. “So it’s very important to confirm by experiment.” Rubin is a chemist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who also was not involved with the study.

Previous work on new forms of carbon caused great excitement among scientists. The discovery in the 1980s of buckyballs (and the family of molecules that includes them, called fullerenes) won a Nobel Prize. Likewise, the 2004 discovery of graphene won a Nobel. Investigations into its many potential uses in electronics and elsewhere have continued.

A highly anticipated new form of carbon has finally arrived on the scene.

Called cyclocarbon, this molecule consists of a ring of 18 carbon atoms. Scientists described it online August 15 in Science. It offers a new face to one of chemistry’s most celebrated elements.

“It’s not every day that you make a new form of carbon,” says chemist Rik Tykwinski. He works in Canada at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Chemists had been trying to create cyclocarbon for a long time. So long that Tykwinski — who wasn’t involved with the new research — had placed a bet about whether it was even possible. He won, he says.

Scientists Say: Graphene

Cyclocarbon joins other molecular forms of the adaptable element, from diamond and graphite to the thin sheets called graphene. There are also tiny spheres known as buckyballs and nano-scale cylinders called carbon nanotubes.

Chemists thought it should be possible to create ring-shaped carbon molecules. But until now, nobody knew what their properties would be, notes physicist Katharina Kaiser. She’s at IBM Research in Zurich, Switzerland. “It’s really amazing that we found it,” she says, “and it’s absolutely great that we could characterize it.”

Kaiser’s team started with molecules of cyclocarbon oxide. These are made of carbon and other atoms. They included groups of carbon monoxide (pairs of carbon and oxygen atoms). Removing the carbon monoxide was a necessary step to create the new ring form of carbon. But that was no easy task. Carbon monoxide helped to stabilize the starting molecule. The researchers managed to pluck off the carbon monoxide groups by zapping the molecule with electricity. They used a specialized tool called an atomic force microscope.

Once the researchers had a bare ring of carbon, they wanted to capture an image of its structure. Again, they used the atomic force microscope. Cyclocarbon reacts easily with other substances — but not table salt. So the team created the new carbon molecule on a salty surface.

Previous research had found hints of cyclocarbon molecules in a gas. But it wasn’t possible to make an image of those molecules. So scientists couldn’t identify the bonds holding the molecule together. Scientists wanted to know if all the bonds were the same length.

The new study resolved that question. It showed that the carbon atoms are held together by alternating long and short bonds.

Cyclocarbon has 18 carbon atoms arranged in a ring, as seen in this simulation. There’s an alternating pattern of long and short bonds between the atoms. CREDIT: IBM Research 

That should now help scientists refine the computer calculations used to predict the structures of unknown molecules. “There’s still a big question whether many of these … calculations give the right answer,” says Yves Rubin. “So it’s very important to confirm by experiment.” Rubin is a chemist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who also was not involved with the study.

Previous work on new forms of carbon caused great excitement among scientists. The discovery in the 1980s of buckyballs (and the family of molecules that includes them, called fullerenes) won a Nobel Prize. Likewise, the 2004 discovery of graphene won a Nobel. Investigations into its many potential uses in electronics and elsewhere have continued.

An elusive wreath of carbon has made its long-awaited debut.

Scientists created a molecule called cyclocarbon and imaged its structure, describing the ring of 18 carbon atoms online August 15 in Science. The work unveils a new face of one of chemistry’s most celebrated elements.

“It’s not every day that you make a new form of carbon,” says chemist Rik Tykwinski of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, who was not involved with the research. The result had eluded chemists for so long that Tykwinski had placed a bet about whether cyclocarbon would be created and imaged. “I basically won a bottle of scotch from a friend,” he says.

Cyclocarbon joins other forms of the versatile element, including diamond, graphite, thin sheets called graphene, tiny spheres known as buckyballs and miniature cylinders called carbon nanotubes.

Chemists thought that it should be possible to create the ring-shaped molecules of carbon. But until now, nobody knew what their properties would be, says physicist Katharina Kaiser of IBM Research in Zurich.“It’s really amazing that we found it and it’s absolutely great that we could characterize it.”

In the lab, Kaiser and colleagues started with molecules of cyclocarbon oxide, which consist of carbon atoms arranged in a loop with additional carbon monoxide groups attached to the atoms. Removing the carbon monoxide to create the coveted new form of carbon is no easy task; those groups help to stabilize the molecule. Using an atomic force microscope, the researchers managed to pluck off the extraneous carbon monoxide by applying voltages to the molecule.

IN THE ROUND Cyclocarbon consists of 18 carbon atoms arranged in a ring (shown in this simulation) with an alternating pattern of long and short bonds between the atoms. CREDIT: IBM RESEARCH

Eventually, the procedure yielded a bare ring of carbon, which the team imaged with the microscope. Cyclocarbon reacts easily with other substances, so to isolate it, the team created the new carbon molecule on an inert surface of table salt.

Previous research had found hints of cyclocarbon molecules in a gas. But that work didn’t satisfy chemists’ curiosity because it wasn’t possible to image the molecule and confirm its structure. In particular, it was unclear if the bonds between each atom would alternate between longer and shorter lengths, known as single and triple bonds, or whether all the bonds would be the same length, or double bonds. The new study resolves the debate, revealing that the carbon atoms are held together by alternating single and triple bonds.

That conclusion could help scientists refine the complex computer calculations that are used to predict the structures of unknown molecules. “There’s still a big question whether many of these … calculations give the right answer, so it’s very important to confirm by experiment,” says chemist Yves Rubin of UCLA, who was not involved with the study.

Previous work on new forms of carbon has been received with great excitement. The discovery in the 1980s of buckyballs and the family of molecules that includes them, fullerenes, garnered a Nobel Prize and much additional research (SN: 10/19/96, p. 247). Likewise, the 2004 discovery of graphene was honored with a Nobel and followed by investigations of potential applications in electronics, for example (SN Online: 10/5/10).

Science, Volume 389, Issue 6761, Page 708-710, August 2025. Summary Without knowing the specific content of the Science article from August 2025, I can only offer a general summary. Assuming it’s a typical research article in Science, it likely presents novel findings in a scientific field. The article probably outlines a specific research question, the methodology used to investigate it, and the…