I am hugely aware of a distinct lack of postings on this site for almost a fortnight now - and I feel I can only justify this with a rather large work load in the lab, coupled with preparations for a bit of a lab redesign…so I apologise.
I am very happy to have read in the RSC Chemistry World RSS feed (click here to subscribe - it is worth it) about a new review on molecules for application in electronic circuits. A review is essentially an overview of the recent literature and developments in a specific area of a subject. They sometimes quote new work, but this is not the usual case. They are (hopefully) a thorough ‘review’ of work in the area of focus, and thus can be exceptionally useful for finding primary literature (original journal articles) and tying ideas together.
The area of molecules for use as electronic devices has been reviewed several times over, with Carroll and Gorman’s ‘The Genesis of Molecular Electronics’ and Tour’s ‘Molecular Electronics. Synthesis and Testing of Components’ being my two favourites. There hasn’t been a good one for a while though, so this recent review on the developments in molecular rectifiers and switches was a welcomed read.
Published in a recent edition of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry, it describes the recent advances in the synthesis of potential molecular devices, with the primary focus on memory units.
Interestingly it also highlights an issue that I think is overlooked in a lot of the literature. Perhaps the main impetus for designing molecular devices was the idea of producing molecule sized devices to replace the aging macroscopic scale semiconductors and silicon computer chips that we have today, enabling, potentially, the designed and production of tiny electronic components and, perhaps one day, a tiny computer, which is no larger than a matchbox and yet has unparalled functionality. This is not the case, as is largely becoming more and more evident as the task of locating and implementing the now available devices into electronic circuits. They are just too small to be able to manipulate with today’s technologies, and any technologies that can be envisioned in the near future. What this paper discusses, admittedly only briefly, is the role these miniature electronic architectures are going to have - simply replacing their inorganic counterparts due to their not being able to be made any smaller.
Essentially this means nothing. The idea that one day a computer will just be a small lump of plastic, which connects wirelessly to an OLED screen which can be unrolled (perhaps even out of the computer/plastic block itself??) is a sci-fi notion that I think I may be alone in believing may be possible. What it means practically is that Moore’s Second Law (addressing the fact that costs will prohibit improvements in silicon-based chips before their quantum abililties could) could be side-stepped as an issue, and Intel could produce smaller and smaller chips into the next century without having to deviate from their mission statement.
But I digress.
So, the journal to get reading is Org. Biomol. Chem. 2007 5 2343 by Mayor et al. Read it, and feel free to comment on my rants here at interestedinscience.com.
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