By Peter Weiss
Single molecules may someday replace the transistors and other already tiny components in today’s microchips. Yet many of the molecules that chemists have found to have promising electronic traits don’t behave as expected in circuits.
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Now, Stuart Lindsay of Arizona State University in Tempe and his colleagues have fabricated single-molecule switches that the scientists say are more predictable. The key, Lindsay says, is to immerse molecules in solutions rich in electrically charged particles, or ions. That liquid, he says, provides a means for controlling the electronic states of the individual molecules.