LIVERPOOL, England, July 11 (UPI) -- British chemists at the University of Liverpool say they are helping create molecular-based electronics for faster and smaller computers.
The researchers say they've succeeded in imaging and forming a bond between a single gold atom and a single organic molecule called a pentacene.
Chemistry Professor Mats Persson said: "This new experiment allows us to control the arrangement and shape of chemical bonds and to gain new insight into making contact with a single molecule with potential importance for molecular electronics.
"There will come a time when electronic material will become so small that we will need to control the structure down to the atomic scale and the chemical bonds between single molecules and atoms."
He said the atomic scale control of single-molecule chemistry in the experiment presents new perspectives in the emerging field of molecular electronics, particularly in connecting organic molecules with electronic components.
"This could be important in creating electronics for future computers which are faster, smaller and have less power consumption," said Persson.
The research was conducted in collaboration with IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory, Finland's Tampere University of Technology and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.
The study appears in Science magazine.
