{"id":666131,"date":"2026-10-26T20:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T20:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666131\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T20:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T20:28:10","slug":"meet-the-molecules-of-the-year-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/666131\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the molecules of the year 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"moty26-poll-jump\"><a href=\"#moty-vote\">Vote for your favorite molecule of 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                Boron buckyball<\/p>\n<p class=\"article-content\">The possibility of a stable, <a href=\"https:\/\/cen.acs.org\/materials\/nanomaterials\/buckyballs-boron-buckminster-fullerene-nanomaterials\/104\/web\/2026\/06\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">80-atom sphere made entirely of boron<\/a> had been debated for nearly 2 decades; scientists finally created it this year (Chem. Sci. 2026, DOI: 10.1039\/d6sc02674e). The researchers made the soccer ball\u2013shaped molecular cages by vaporizing a boron target with a laser and analyzed them using photoelectron spectroscopy. For now, the buckyballs are accessible only in tiny quantities, but if scientists can figure out a bulk synthesis method, B80 clusters could find uses in semiconductors and hydrogen storage materials.<\/p>\n<p>                \u2018Impossible\u2019 hydroxy oxonium<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vote for your favorite molecule of 2026 Boron buckyball The possibility of a stable, 80-atom sphere made entirely&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":666132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[144620,53830,282180,127893,282174,282178,61,60,282171,282172,54841,282175,282177,282179,282176,127894,99812,82,282173,9599,52490],"class_list":["post-666131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-aromatic","tag-boron","tag-buckyball","tag-cubene","tag-cuprocene","tag-electrophile","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-molecules-of-the-year","tag-moty","tag-nucleophile","tag-organometallic","tag-oxomium","tag-oxonium","tag-pentasilacyclopentadienide","tag-quadricyclene","tag-sandwich","tag-science","tag-secaloside","tag-silicon","tag-synthesis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=666131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/666131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/666132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=666131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=666131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=666131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}