“It’s a liquid that’s rather volatile. If you left it on the counter, it would be gone all morning,” Gravel said. The compound has the potential to replace benzene — a six-carbon ring structure — in many applications, including as an organic semiconductor for use in electronics and solar panels. First, Gravel needs to produce more of the substance to better explore its properties. “Maybe it will last longer, maybe it will work better. We don’t know yet,” he said. While the properties of many compounds can be predicted using computer modeling, for [10]Annular and other so-called “aromatic” molecules—those with alternating single and double bonds—calculation has not caught up with experimentation. Scientists must produce the compounds to test them. Gravel is working on a new path to make this and more [10]ringed more efficiently, reducing the number of steps from 12 to three or four and increasing output efficiency. “If all goes well, we’re looking at a few months to produce the compound using the new pathway,” Gravel said. “If things don’t go well, maybe never.”
