Triangulene
Triangulene
Chemical compound
Triangulene (also known as Clar's hydrocarbon) is the smallest triplet-ground-state polybenzenoid.[1] It exists as a biradical with the chemical formula C
22H
12.[2] It was first hypothesized by Czech chemist Erich Clar in 1953.[3] Its first confirmed synthesis was published in a February 2017 issue of Nature Nanotechnology, in a project led by researchers David Fox and Anish Mistry at the University of Warwick in collaboration with IBM.[4] Other attempts by Japanese researchers have been successful only in making substituted triangulene derivatives.[5]
A six-step synthesis yielded two isomers of dihydrotriangulene which were then deposited on xenon or copper base. The researchers used a combined scanning tunneling and atomic force microscope (STM/AFM) to remove individual hydrogen atoms. The synthesized molecule of triangulene remained stable at high-vacuum low-temperature conditions for four days, giving the scientists plenty of time to characterize it (also using STM/AFM).[4]