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Formation of a star-shaped polyhedron starting from a semi-regular polyhedron (Press Release)

Release Date
12 Mar, 2012
  • BL38B1 (Structural Biology III)
– Autonomously forming cubic molecules that allow transformation into more complex shapes –

The University of Tokyo

Molecules in the shape of a Platonic solid (regular polyhedron) or Archimedean solid (semi-regular polyhedron) have long attracted the attention of many chemists, and some have been artificially synthesized. In this research, a method has been successfully developed to synthesize a star-shaped polyhedron with 100% efficiency. Many of these molecules have traditionally defied synthesis because of their complex (convex polygon) shapes. The key to the success of this research lies in the synthesis steps broadly split into two: synthesis of a cubic octahedron molecule (a variant of an Archimedean solid), followed by transforming it into a star-shaped cubic octahedron by way of appending protruding portions to it. The researchers have also succeeded in restoring the original cubic octahedron by removing the protruding portions.

The results of this research were published in Advanced Online Publication (AOP) of Nature Chemistry at 6 pm, March 11, 2012 BST (2 pm of the same day US EST, summer time), ahead of printed publication.

Publication:
"An M18L24 stellated cuboctahedron through post-stellation of an M12L24 core".
Qing-Fu Sun, Sota Sato and Makoto Fujita
Nature Chemistry Published online 11 March 2012

<<Figures>>

Fig. 1. A cubic octahedron, and a star-shaped octahedron derived from it.
Fig. 1. A cubic octahedron, and a star-shaped octahedron derived from it.

Fig. 2. The structure of a cubic octahedron molecule (determined by single-crystal structural analysis)
Fig. 2. The structure of a cubic octahedron molecule
(determined by single-crystal structural analysis)

Fig. 3. The structure of a star-shaped cubic octahedron derived from a cubic octahedron molecule (determined by single-crystal structural analysis)
Fig. 3. The structure of a star-shaped cubic octahedron derived from
a cubic octahedron molecule (determined by single-crystal structural analysis)

<<Glossary>>
*1 Self-organization
A phenomenon in which a large organized structure spontaneously forms from a chaotic assembly of small elements. In the synthesis reported here, a large star-shaped cubic octahedron was formed from small groups of constituent elements, i.e. 18 metallic ions and 24 ligands.


For more information‚ please contact:
　Prof. Makoto Fujita (The University of Tokyo)
　　　E-mail：mail