Beijing High Pressure Science Research Center researcher Li Kuo and collaborators at Nankai University, Peking University and others report a high‑pressure solid‑state topological polymerization method that produces carbon‑encapsulated single‑metal‑atom chains with ordered atomic arrangement and high structural stability, achieving milligram‑scale batch yields and chain lengths exceeding 1 μm — roughly two orders of magnitude longer than previous international reports. The results are published

Beijing High Pressure Science Research Center researcher Li Kuo and collaborators at Nankai University, Peking University and others report a high‑pressure solid‑state topological polymerization method that produces carbon‑encapsulated single‑metal‑atom chains with ordered atomic arrangement and high structural stability, achieving milligram‑scale batch yields and chain lengths exceeding 1 μm — roughly two orders of magnitude longer than previous international reports. The results are published in Science. The team used β‑copper phthalocyanine as the precursor and high pressure to precisely tune intermolecular spacing; the synthesis route is reported to be extendable to cobalt, nickel, zinc and other metal systems, providing a new fabrication pathway for low‑dimensional functional materials.