Olympiadane is a
mechanically interlocked molecule composed of five interlocking macrocycles that resembles the
Olympic rings
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) uses icons, flags and symbols to elevate the Olympic Games. These symbols include those commonly used during Olympic competition—such as the flame, fanfare and theme—as well as those used throughout ...
. The molecule is a linear pentacatenane or a
atenane. It was synthesized and named by
Fraser Stoddart
Sir James Fraser Stoddart (born 24 May 1942) is a British-American chemist who is Board of Trustees Professor of Chemistry and head of the Stoddart Mechanostereochemistry Group in the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University in ...
and coworkers in 1994. The molecule was designed without any practical use in mind,
although other catenanes may have possible application to the construction of a
molecular computer
DNA computing is an emerging branch of unconventional computing which uses DNA, biochemistry, and molecular biology hardware, instead of the traditional electronic computing. Research and development in this area concerns theory, experiments, a ...
.
See also
*
Olympicene
Olympicene is an organic carbon based molecule formed of five rings, of which four are benzene rings, joined in the shape of the Olympic rings.
The molecule was conceived in March 2010 as a way to celebrate the 2012 London Olympics by Graham R ...
References
{{heterocyclic-stub
Molecular topology
Hexafluorophosphates
Supramolecular chemistry
Pyridinium compounds
Substances discovered in the 1990s