A 2020 study reported a molybdenum-based molecular cage containing 1,000 non-hydrogen atoms: 240 molybdenum, 740 oxygen and 20 sulfur. It forms a hollow, nearly regular dodecahedron with a cavity about 1.84 nanometres across. The “largest” claim is specific to hollow-opening dodecahedral cages known to the authors at publication—not a verified ranking across every kind of molecular cage today.
What the 1,000-atom cage is
Lin and colleagues reported the structure in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in 2020, naming it Mo240·g, or compound 1·g. The 1,000 figure counts atoms in the inorganic cage cluster: 240 molybdenum (Mo), 740 oxygen (O) and 20 sulfur (S). It does not include hydrogen, solvent molecules or counterions that may be present in the crystallized material.
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The structure is a polymolybdate: a molecular cluster built from molybdenum- and oxygen-rich units. Its overall shape is a nearly regular pentagonal dodecahedron, a solid with 12 pentagonal faces. Here, those faces are open windows rather than sealed panels.
How the cage is assembled and what is inside
The dodecahedral framework combines 20 tripod-shaped {Mo6} units with 30 cubane-type {Mo4} units. Together, they enclose a free cavity about 1.84 nm in diameter—roughly 18.4 Å—and leave 12 pentagonal openings, each about 5.5 Å across, according to the authors’ structural analysis.
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Those measurements describe different features: the cavity is the interior space, while the windows are the openings through the cage surface. The windows are much smaller than the cavity, so the cavity’s diameter alone does not show what could pass through an opening.
What “largest yet” means
The authors wrote: “To the best of our knowledge, cage 1 is the highest nuclearity and symmetry hollow opening dodecahedra synthesized thus far.” In this context, nuclearity refers to the number of atoms in the cluster. Their record claim was therefore bounded by a particular structural class—hollow-opening dodecahedra—and by what was known when the paper appeared in 2020.
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It should not be read as proof that this is the largest molecule under every possible definition of a cage, or that it remains the largest across all cage types in 2026. Comparisons depend on what counts as the cage and whether hydrogen, solvent or counterions are included in an atom total.
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The team obtained dark red crystals through a hydrothermal reaction involving ammonium heptamolybdate, cobalt sulfate, hydrazine dihydrochloride, water and a trace of dilute sulfuric acid. The paper reports that other sulfates could replace cobalt sulfate in synthesis trials; that does not establish that the reaction is simple, broadly reproducible or independently replicated.
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Single-crystal X-ray diffraction and additional analytical methods were used to determine the structure and composition. The resulting evidence supports the reported cage architecture and atom count in the studied crystals.
What the conductivity measurements show
The authors measured proton conductivity in crystalline powder samples. The reported bulk values were:
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| Temperature | Relative humidity | Reported bulk conductivity |
|---|---|---|
| 25 °C | 98% | 3.33 × 10⁻² S cm⁻¹ |
| 80 °C | 98% | 1.03 × 10⁻¹ S cm⁻¹ |
Both results are laboratory measurements under very high relative humidity; the temperature and humidity are essential context for interpreting the figures. The authors described the values as among the highest reported for polyoxometalate crystalline proton conductors under analogous conditions. They point to possible relevance for proton transport and cage design, but the measurements do not demonstrate a working commercial electrolyte or device.
Primary source
The structural and conductivity claims come from Lin and colleagues’ 2020 paper, “Self-Assembly of Giant Mo240 Hollow Opening Dodecahedra”, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142, 13982–13988. Chemistry World’s September 2020 report covered the finding; the scientific details above follow the primary paper.
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