{"id":32470,"date":"2026-10-29T11:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T11:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=32470"},"modified":"2026-10-29T11:26:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T11:26:53","slug":"molecules-of-the-year-2026-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=32470","title":{"rendered":"Molecules of the year: 2026 – vote!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The annual C&E News poll on “molecules of the year” is under way<\/a> and you are encouraged to vote for one. Having taken a quick look at each of the candidates, I normally see if I can add any “value” to the originals by performing appropriate calculations (e.g. [1]<\/a><\/span> and many others). This year, I cannot help but note that most of the candidates already report pretty good quality calculations of this type, thus limiting my scope for adding such value. It is a sign of the times that appropriate modelling is now a sine qua non<\/i> for\u00a0reports of many novel and interesting new molecules.\u00a0In the citations below,\u00a0I have taken the liberty of adding related references for some earlier precedents from our own work.\u2021<\/sup><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Boron buckyball [2]<\/a><\/span> (see this 2009 article on B60<\/sub>[3]<\/a><\/span>).<\/li>\n
  2. \u2018Impossible\u2019 hydroxy oxonium [4]<\/a><\/span> (see this 2016 article on such oxonium ions as intermediates in natural product synthesis.[5]<\/a><\/span>)<\/li>\n
  3. Aromatic silicon ring [6]<\/a><\/span>,[7]<\/a><\/span> (see this 2010 precedent for an aromatic silicon ring[8]<\/a><\/span>)<\/li>\n
  4. Secaloside stereochemistry revealed [9]<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Superstrained cubic alkene [10]<\/a><\/span>, [1]<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Colorful copper sandwiches [11]<\/a><\/span>,[12]<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    \u2021<\/sup>Since around 2012, I have been adding references<\/a> to my blog posts, in the time honoured scientific tradition. If you look at the inventory of the 878 or so such posts, I am very proud that currently 65.3% of them have at least one such reference. It is not that common amongst science blogs unfortunately (only ~5.9%). I encourage all who write science-based posts to add such references, and of course to cite other blogs using a DOI assigned to it by e.g. Rogue Scholar.<\/p>\n

    References<\/h2>\n
    1. H. Rzepa, \"Molecules of the Year 2024: A crystal structure perspective on anti-Bredt olefins.\", 2025. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.59350\/dxkyx-8nb67<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n
    2. H.W. Choi, Y. Zhang, D. Kahraman, C. Xu, H. Gao, J. Li, and L. Wang, \"Boron buckminsterfullerene\", Chemical Science<\/i>, vol. 17, pp. 12871-12876, 2026. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1039\/d6sc02674e<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n
    3. H.S. Rzepa, \"The distortivity of \u03c0-electrons in conjugated boron rings\", Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics<\/i>, vol. 11, pp. 10042, 2009. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1039\/b911817a<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n
    4. A.L. Otsuki, G.A. Alkan, S. Manabe, W.T. Shewa, G. Gunbas, J.C. Fettinger, M. Mascal, and N. Hafezi, \"A Hydroxy\u2010Substituted Trialkyloxonium Ion and Its Oxonium Alkoxide Zwitterion\", Angewandte Chemie International Edition<\/i>, vol. 65, 2026. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/anie.2727232<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n
    5. J. Clarke, K.J. Bonney, M. Yaqoob, S. Solanki, H.S. Rzepa, A.J.P. White, D.S. Millan, and D.C. Braddock, \"Epimeric Face-Selective\nOxidations and Diastereodivergent\nTransannular Oxonium Ion Formation Fragmentations: Computational Modeling\nand Total Syntheses of 12-Epoxyobtusallene IV, 12-Epoxyobtusallene\nII, Obtusallene X, Marilzabicycloallene C, and Marilzabicycloallene\nD\", The Journal of Organic Chemistry<\/i>, vol. 81, pp. 9539-9552, 2016. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1021\/acs.joc.6b02008<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n
    6. B. Morgenstern, and D. Scheschkewitz, \"Pentasilacyclopentadienide: A H\u00fcckel aromatic species at the border of resonance and equilibrium\", Science<\/i>, vol. 391, pp. 579-582, 2026. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.aed1802<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n
    7. T. Iwamoto, T. Ishikawa, and S. Ishida, \"Silicon cyclopentadienides featuring a nonplanar 6\u03c0 aromatic Si\n <sub>5<\/sub>\n ring\", Science<\/i>, vol. 391, pp. 587-591, 2026. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.aed0168<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n
    8. K. Abersfelder, A.J.P. White, H.S. Rzepa, and D. Scheschkewitz, \"A Tricyclic Aromatic Isomer of Hexasilabenzene\", Science<\/i>, vol. 327, pp. 564-566, 2010. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.1181771<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n
    9. Y. Nam, A.T. Tam, T.E. Reynolds, D.N. Rojas, J.A. Brekan, S. Sil, and K.A. Scheidt, \"Synthesis and Structural Confirmation of Secalosides A and B\", Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/i>, vol. 148, pp. 86-92, 2025. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1021\/jacs.5c18864<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n
    10. J. Ding, S.A. French, C.A. Rivera, A. Tena Meza, D.C. Witkowski, K.N. Houk, and N.K. Garg, \"Hyperpyramidalized alkenes with bond orders near 1.5 as synthetic building blocks\", Nature Chemistry<\/i>, vol. 18, pp. 913-922, 2026. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41557-025-02055-9<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n
    11. J.D. Queen, R. Grotjahn, L. Garcia, G. Rao, A.A. Shiau, R.D. Britt, J.W. Ziller, F. Furche, and W.J. Evans, \"Isolable Cuprocenes: Bis(tri-\n <i>tert<\/i>\n -butylcyclopentadienyl) Complexes of Copper\", Journal of the American Chemical Society<\/i>, vol. 148, pp. 5462-5475, 2026. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1021\/jacs.5c19366<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n
    12. H. Rzepa, \"Molecules of the year 2023 \u2013 part 2. A FAIR data comment on a Strontium Metallocene.\", 2023. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.59350\/cvzze-k0171<\/a>\n\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n<\/div> ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The annual C&E News poll on “molecules of the year” is under way and you are encouraged to vote for one. Having taken a quick look at each of the candidates, I normally see if I can add any “value” to the originals by performing appropriate calculations (e.g. and many others). This year, I cannot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":5,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_ppma_block_editor_authors":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[2661],"class_list":["post-32470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting-chemistry"],"yoast_head":"\nMolecules of the year: 2026 - vote! - Henry Rzepa's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=32470\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Molecules of the year: 2026 - vote! - Henry Rzepa's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The annual C&E News poll on “molecules of the year” is under way and you are encouraged to vote for one. 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Pnictogen chains and 16 coordinate Cs.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"December 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I am completing my survey of the vote for molecule of the year candidates, which this year seems focused on chemical records of one type or another. The first article reports striving towards creating a molecule covering a complete column of the period table. In this case, group 7, containing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "crystal_structure_mining"","block_context":{"text":"crystal_structure_mining","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=1745"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10990,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=10990","url_meta":{"origin":32470,"position":1},"title":"Molecule-sized pixels.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"August 11, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The ultimate reduction in size for an engineer is to a single molecule. It's been done for a car; now it has been reported for the pixel (picture-element). The molecule above (X=O, NR, R=aryl, etc) has been shown to be capable of acting as a molecular pixel. To give some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interesting chemistry"","block_context":{"text":"Interesting chemistry","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21579,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=21579","url_meta":{"origin":32470,"position":2},"title":"What effect do explicit solvent molecules have on calculated optical rotation: D-(“+”)-Glyceraldehyde.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"December 7, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"In this series of posts on optical rotations,\u00a0I firstly noted Kirkwood's 1937 attempt to correlate the optical rotation of butan-2-ol with its absolute configuration. He had identified as essential knowing the relative orientation (the term conformation was not yet in common use) of the two methyl groups (the modern terms\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chiroptics"","block_context":{"text":"Chiroptics","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=2644"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/glyceraldehyde-rotations-1024x530.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28187,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=28187","url_meta":{"origin":32470,"position":3},"title":"Molecules of the Year 2024: A crystal structure perspective on anti-Bredt olefins.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"January 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Each year C&E News publishes a list of candidates for the Molecule of the Year. For 2024 the list is (in order of votes cast for each) Mirror-image cyclodextrin Molecular shuttle in a box Rule-bending strained alkene First soluble promethium complex Single-electron carbon-carbon bond Hot MOF for capturing carbon I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interesting chemistry"","block_context":{"text":"Interesting chemistry","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26997,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=26997","url_meta":{"origin":32470,"position":4},"title":"Exploring Methanetriol – “the Formation of an Impossible Molecule”","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"May 16, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"What constitutes an \"impossible molecule\"? Well, here are two, the first being the topic of a recent article. The second is a favourite of organic chemistry tutors, to see if their students recognise it as an unusual (= impossible) form of a much better known molecule. Perhaps we could define\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=26997#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/COLRUT.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15415,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=15415","url_meta":{"origin":32470,"position":5},"title":"I\u2019ve started so I\u2019ll finish. The ionisation mechanism and kinetic isotope effects for 1,3-dimethylindolin-2 one","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"January 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the third and final study deriving from my Ph.D.. The first two topics dealt with the mechanism of heteroaromatic electrophilic attack using either a diazonium cation or a proton as electrophile, followed by either proton abstraction or carbon dioxide loss from the resulting Wheland intermediate. This final study\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Historical"","block_context":{"text":"Historical","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=565"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"authors":[{"term_id":2661,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"admin","display_name":"Henry Rzepa","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/897b6740f7f599bca7942cdf7d7914af5988937ae0e3869ab09aebb87f26a731?s=96&d=blank&r=g","avatar_alt":"","avatar_decorative":"","author_category":"1","first_name":"Henry","last_name":"Rzepa","user_url":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8635-8390","job_title":"","description":"Emeritus Professor of Computational Chemistry at Imperial College London."}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32470"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32503,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32470\/revisions\/32503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32470"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=32470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}