{"date_created":"2026-08-16T22:01:42Z","type":"journal_article","file":[{"creator":"dernst","date_created":"2026-08-20T06:33:50Z","date_updated":"2026-08-20T06:33:50Z","content_type":"application/pdf","access_level":"open_access","success":1,"relation":"main_file","file_size":1790013,"file_name":"2026_NatureComm_Shi.pdf","checksum":"3f578b67037425a7c5d21922807b23df","file_id":"22741"}],"ddc":["530"],"tmp":{"image":"/images/cc_by_nc_nd.png","short":"CC BY-NC-ND (4.0)","name":"Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode"},"abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"When charge flows through a molecular circuit, it induces a magnetic field that allows the circuit to behave as a nanoscale electromagnet. However, in single-molecule circuits this magnetic field is usually weak. Here we show that radially π-conjugated carbon structures can support amplified circulating currents that generate local magnetic fields. Within tight-binding and density functional theory (DFT) frameworks, we first study cycloparaphenylene (CPP) junctions where both electrodes are attached to the same phenylene unit on the nanohoop. We observe an energy-dependent ring current component that traverses the whole macrocycle by mapping the local current density. Importantly, we find that destructive interference near degenerate resonances can reverse the ring current direction and amplify it strongly relative to the source–drain current. We show that this interference-driven design principle is general, and also carries over to C60 junctions. In fullerene, lower-lying degenerate resonances are more easily accessible through electrostatic gating, reaching a magnetic field of 14.2 mT under a 100 mV source–drain bias. This work thus provides new insights into ring currents in radially π-conjugated carbon structures and highlights their potential as design platforms for single-molecule electromagnets."}],"article_type":"original","publication_status":"published","article_number":"7916","publication":"Nature Communications","volume":17,"date_updated":"2026-08-20T06:40:49Z","pmid":1,"_id":"22711","citation":{"ama":"Shi W, Korytár R, Evers F, Tovar JD, Venkataraman L. Designing effective single-molecule electromagnets with radially π-conjugated carbon structures. <i>Nature Communications</i>. 2026;17. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74365-6\">10.1038/s41467-026-74365-6</a>","ista":"Shi W, Korytár R, Evers F, Tovar JD, Venkataraman L. 2026. Designing effective single-molecule electromagnets with radially π-conjugated carbon structures. Nature Communications. 17, 7916.","mla":"Shi, Wanzhuo, et al. “Designing Effective Single-Molecule Electromagnets with Radially π-Conjugated Carbon Structures.” <i>Nature Communications</i>, vol. 17, 7916, Springer Nature, 2026, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74365-6\">10.1038/s41467-026-74365-6</a>.","ieee":"W. Shi, R. Korytár, F. Evers, J. D. Tovar, and L. Venkataraman, “Designing effective single-molecule electromagnets with radially π-conjugated carbon structures,” <i>Nature Communications</i>, vol. 17. Springer Nature, 2026.","short":"W. Shi, R. Korytár, F. Evers, J.D. Tovar, L. Venkataraman, Nature Communications 17 (2026).","apa":"Shi, W., Korytár, R., Evers, F., Tovar, J. D., &#38; Venkataraman, L. (2026). Designing effective single-molecule electromagnets with radially π-conjugated carbon structures. <i>Nature Communications</i>. Springer Nature. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74365-6\">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74365-6</a>","chicago":"Shi, Wanzhuo, Richard Korytár, Ferdinand Evers, John D. Tovar, and Latha Venkataraman. “Designing Effective Single-Molecule Electromagnets with Radially π-Conjugated Carbon Structures.” <i>Nature Communications</i>. Springer Nature, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74365-6\">https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-74365-6</a>."},"publication_identifier":{"eissn":["2041-1723"]},"publisher":"Springer Nature","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","title":"Designing effective single-molecule electromagnets with radially π-conjugated carbon structures","DOAJ_listed":"1","year":"2026","dataavailabilitystatement":"The data generated in this study have been deposited in the Code Ocean capsule. The capsule contains the FHI-aims and AITRANSS output matrices used for post-processing, precomputed cache files, and optimized atomic coordinate files. These data are sufficient to reproduce the results reported in the paper. The code used to reproduce the local-current and magnetic-field analyses is available in the Code Ocean capsule. The capsule includes Python scripts for post-processing DFT output matrices and Mathematica notebooks for tight-binding calculations and reproducing visualizations.","intvolume":"        17","author":[{"last_name":"Shi","full_name":"Shi, Wanzhuo","first_name":"Wanzhuo","id":"a3010425-87c8-11f0-8106-bec32bea74da"},{"full_name":"Korytár, Richard","last_name":"Korytár","first_name":"Richard"},{"first_name":"Ferdinand","full_name":"Evers, Ferdinand","last_name":"Evers"},{"first_name":"John D.","full_name":"Tovar, John D.","last_name":"Tovar"},{"first_name":"Latha","orcid":"0000-0002-6957-6089","last_name":"Venkataraman","full_name":"Venkataraman, Latha","id":"9ebb78a5-cc0d-11ee-8322-fae086a32caf"}],"supplementarymaterial":"yes","corr_author":"1","acknowledgement":"The authors thank Jascha Repp from the University of Regensburg for helpful discussions. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Prof. Mark Ratner in appreciation of the encouragement offered many years ago, and whose influence had endured ever since. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant NSF-DMR 2241180 and the Institute of Science and Technology Austria. The collaboration between L.V., R.K., and F.E. was supported by the Humboldt Foundation. This research was funded in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) [10.55776/COE5] (Cluster of Excellence MECS).","oa_version":"Published Version","department":[{"_id":"LaVe"}],"status":"public","quality_controlled":"1","external_id":{"pmid":["42277037"]},"date_published":"2026-08-06T00:00:00Z","OA_type":"gold","oa":1,"has_accepted_license":"1","OA_place":"publisher","article_processing_charge":"Yes","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"scopus_import":"1","researchdata_availability":"yes","day":"06","file_date_updated":"2026-08-20T06:33:50Z","month":"08","das_tickbox":"1","doi":"10.1038/s41467-026-74365-6"}