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A team led by Atsuhiro Osuka at Kyoto University reported the first quadruply twisted aromatic molecule: a dodecaporphyrin ring held in a di-palladium complex. Its aromatic system contains 54 π electrons and four 180° twists, showing that the reported ring could exhibit aromaticity despite being far from planar.

What “four-twist” means

The description refers to four 180° twists in the molecule’s ring. The molecule is a dodecaporphyrin coordinated with two palladium atoms, and the report calls it a quadruply twisted Hückel aromatic dodecaphyrin. The reported aromatic system contains 54 π electrons.

Aromaticity is commonly associated with cyclic electron systems, but this result is notable because the ring is markedly non-planar. The 2018 report describes it as the first quadruply twisted aromatic molecule; it does not establish that every molecule with four twists, or every twisted porphyrin, is aromatic.

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How the researchers obtained a rigid twisted structure

The team initially designed extended bridged porphyrins, but those structures were flexible and tended to adopt less-twisted conformations. According to the report, coordinating palladium atoms to nitrogen atoms in the dodecaporphyrin rings made the structures more rigid. Several quadruply twisted di-palladium complexes resulted.

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How aromaticity was assessed

Most of the resulting twisted complexes were not aromatic. The report says only one showed aromaticity, assessed using spectral analysis and ring-current calculations. This distinction matters: the finding was not simply that a four-times-twisted structure had been made, but that one such complex also showed evidence of aromaticity.

What the report establishes—and what it leaves open

Chemistry World reported the discovery on 22 October 2018 and cited T. Soya, H. Mori and A. Osuka’s paper in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, DOI 10.1002/anie.201811433. The available report supports the molecule’s identity, the 54-electron count, the four 180° twists, the palladium-based rigidification, and the stated aromaticity evidence.

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It does not provide enough detail to specify reaction conditions, yields, full spectral data, computational methods, or detailed limitations. Nor does the reported discovery by itself establish a practical application or consumer availability for the compound.

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