Möbius Strips of NbSe₃: Morphology Design and Solid-State Chemistry

A preparative challenge in inorganic solid-state synthesis is to control the morphology of the arising products, for example, of vaterite microsponges (see picture). An important breakthrough in this area has now been achieved with the preparation of microcrystalline Möbius strips and rings from niobium selenide. The synthesis was achieved by a versatile combination of chemical transport reactions and templating techniques.