MOLECULAR wires, long-chain molecules which can conduct electricity, could one day lead to microscopic devices for storing information, chemicals sensors and organic computers that might rival the power and efficiency of the human brain. But only if they can be made into circuits. Now a group of chemists in the US has made an important breakthrough by finding a way to cross-connect molecular wires and make the molecular equivalent of a junction box.
James Tour, Ruilian We and Jeffry Schumm of the University of South Carolina at Columbia have made a connection between two molecular wires - each a short chain of polythiophene rings (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 1990, vol 112, p 5662). Chains of up to a thousand thiophene rings can approach the conductivity of a metal if they are 'doped' with impurity atoms.
Molecular wires conduct electricity because they have double bonds along their chains, which ...
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