Elisaveta Kossoy, Haim Weissman and Boris Rybtchinski, Department of Organic Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot
This cryo-TEM micrograph (false colors) demonstrates a self-assembled 2.0 nm molecular wire shaped as a spiral 48 nm in diameter. The assembly is held together by cobalt-water bridges among the amphiphilic perylene diimide cobalt complexes in 19:1 water:THF. The high contrast regions of the molecular wire fine structure (0.7 nm each) is due to highly aromatic moieties (ca. 1.2 nm high) of the assembled molecules. Lower right: a satellite image from the Kalahari desert of spiral shaped geoglyphs made by an unknown ancient civilization in South Africa. Each spiral is tens to hundreds of meters wide.
