Led by Columbia Engineering, researchers built the longest and highly conductive molecular nanowires
New York, NY—July 7, 2022—As our devices get smaller, the use of molecules as key components in electronic circuits is becoming increasingly critical. Over the past 10 years, researchers have been trying to use single molecules as conducting wires because of their small scale, different electronic characteristics, and high tunability. But in most molecular wires, as the length of the wire increases, the efficiency of transmitting electrons across the wire decreases exponentially. These limitations make it very challenging to construct long molecular wires longer than nanometers. which actually conducts electricity well. Columbia researchers announced today that they have constructed a nanowire that is 2.6 nanometers long, exhibits an unusual increase in conductance as the wire length increases, and has quasi-metallic properties. Its excellent conductivity holds great promise for the field of molecular electronics, enabling electronic devices to become smaller. The study was publi