Next Generation

Coming soon: molecular keyboard?
In the race for smaller and smaller electronic components, Man-Kit Ng, SM'97, PhD'02, and chemistry professor Luping Yu have made a gigantic leap forward. The pair created a molecular diode—an electrical component that conducts electricity in one direction—by chemically bonding two electrically opposed compounds made mostly of hydrogen and carbon, embedding them in a sheet only one molecule thick, and then transferring the sheet to a gold platform. The resulting diode, approximately 12 atoms wide, could be the first in a move toward smaller, simpler, and thus faster transistors—which are made by placing two diodes back to back. Yu and Ng describe their work in the October 2 Angewandte Chemie and the online September 12 Journal of the American Chemical Society.

— E.H.