Organic Molecules Challenge :: essays research papers

Organic Molecules ChallengeSilicons Reign as King of SemiconductorsThere is a revolution fomenting in the semiconductor industry. It may take 30 days or more to reach perfection, but when it does the advance may be so greatthat todays computers will be little more than calculators comp ard to whatwill tot after. The revolution is called molecular electronics, and its goal isto depose silicon as king of the computer chip and put carbon in its place.The perpetrators are a some clever chemists trying to use pigment, proteins,polymers, and other organic molecules to carry out the same task thatmicroscopic patterns of silicon and metal do now. For years these researchersworked in secret, mainly at their blackboards, plotting and planning. Now theyare beginning to conduct small forays in the laboratory, and their few successesto date lead them to believe they were on the right track."We contribute a long way to go before carbon-based electronics replace silicon-basedelectronics, b ut we can see now that we hope to revolutionize computer designand performance," express Robert R. Birge, a professor of chemistry, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh. "Now its only a matter of time, hard work, andsome luck before molecular electronics start having a noticeable impact."molecular(a) electronics is so named because it uses molecules to act as the"wires" and "switches" of computer chips. Wires, may someday be replaced bypolymers that conduct electricity, such as polyacetylene andpolyphenylenesulfide. Another candidate might be organometallic compounds suchas porphyrins and phthalocyanines which also conduct electricity. Whencrystallized, these flat molecules stack like pancakes, and metal ions in theircenters line up with one another to form a one-dimensional wire.Many organic molecules can exist in two distinct stable terra firmas that differ insome measurable property and are interconvertable. These could be switches ofmolecular elec tronics. For example, bacteriorhodpsin, a bacterial pigment,exists in two optical states one state absorbs green light, the other orange.Shinning green light on the green-absorbing state converts it into the orangestate and vice versa. Birge and his coworkers have developed high density memorydrives using bacteriorhodopsin.Although the idea of using organic molecules may seem far-fetched, it happens both day throughout nature. "Electron transport in photosynthesis one of themost important energy generating systems in nature, is a real-world example ofwhat were trying to do," said Phil Seiden, carriage of molecular science, IBM,Yorkstown Heights, N.Y.Birge, who heads the Center for Molecular Electronics at Carnegie-Mellon, saidtwo factors are driving this developing revolution, more speed and less space."Semiconductor chip designers are always trying to cram more electronic