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Scientists are reporting a key advance toward the long-awaited era of “single-molecule electronics,â€� when common electronic circuits in computers, smart phones, audio players, and other devices may shrink to the size of a grain of sand. The breakthrough is a method for creating and attaching the tiny wires that will connect molecular components, reports a new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Öйú365betÖÐÎĹÙÍø.

Yuji Okawa and colleagues write that the “key to single-molecule electronics is connecting functional molecules to each other using conductive nanowires. This involves two issues: how to create conductive nanowires at designated positions, and how to ensure chemical bonding between the nanowires and functional molecules.� That challenge has stymied many researchers, who have struggled to produce wires small enough to use in molecular circuits.

The scientists now demonstrate a method that uses the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope to jump-start the formation of a molecule chain. The chain or “wire� spontaneously chemically bonds with other molecular components in the circuit under construction, a process that Okawa and colleagues dub “chemical soldering.� The wiring method can be used to connect molecular switches, memory bits, and transistors. The scientists say their technique “will enable us to develop cheaper, higher-performance, and more ecological alternatives to conventional silicon-based devices.�

The authors acknowledge funding from the .