59 results about "Molecular electronics" patented technology

A method for purifying a mixture comprising single-wall carbon nanotubes and amorphous carbon contaminate is disclosed. The method includes the steps of heating the mixture under oxidizing conditions sufficient to remove the amorphous carbon, followed by recovering a product comprising at least about 80% by weight of single-wall carbon nanotubes. A method for producing tubular carbon molecules of about 5 to 500 nm in length is also disclosed. The method includes the steps of cutting single-wall nanotube containing-material to form a mixture of tubular carbon molecules having lengths in the range of 5-500 nm and isolating a fraction of the molecules having substantially equal lengths. The nanotubes may be used, singularly or in multiples, in power transmission cables, in solar cells, in batteries, as antennas, as molecular electronics, as probes and manipulators, and in composites.

The present invention generally relates to the fabrication of molecular electronics devices from molecular wires and Single Wall Nanotubes (SWNT). In one embodiment, the cutting of a SWNT is achieved by opening a window of small width by lithography patterning of a protective layer on top of the SWNT, followed by applying an oxygen plasma to the exposed SWNT portion. In another embodiment, the gap of a cut SWNT is reconnected by one or more difunctional molecules having appropriate lengths reacting to the functional groups on the cut SWNT ends to form covalent bonds. In another embodiment, the gap of a cut SWNT gap is filled with a self-assembled monolayer from derivatives of novel contorted hexabenzocoranenes. In yet another embodiment, a device based on molecular wire reconnecting a cut SWNT is used as a sensor to detect a biological binding event.

An architecture for nanoscale electronics is disclosed. The architecture comprises arrays of crossed nanoscale wires having selectively programmable crosspoints. Nanoscale wires of one array are shared by other arrays, thus providing signal propagation between the arrays. Nanoscale signal restoration elements are also provided, allowing an output of a first array to be used as an input to a second array. Signal restoration occurs without routing of the signal to non-nanoscale wires.

Embodiments in accordance with the present invention relate to techniques for the growth and attachment of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNT), facilitating their use as robust and well-characterized tools for AFM imaging and other applications. In accordance with one embodiment, SWNTs attached to an AFM tip can function as a structural scaffold for nanoscale device fabrication on a scanning probe. Such a probe can trigger, with nanometer precision, specific biochemical reactions or conformational changes in biological systems. The consequences of such triggering can be observed in real time by single-molecule fluorescence, electrical, and / or AFM sensing. Specific embodiments in accordance with the present invention utilize sensing and manipulation of individual molecules with carbon nanotubes, coupled with single-molecule fluorescence imaging, to allow observation of spectroscopic signals in response to mechanically induced molecular changes. Biological macromolecules such as proteins or DNA can be attached to nanotubes to create highly specific single-molecule probes for investigations of intermolecular dynamics, for assembling hybrid biological and nanoscale materials, or for developing molecular electronics. In one example, electrical wiring of single redox enzymes to carbon nanotube scanning probes allows observation and electrochemical control over single enzymatic reactions by monitoring fluorescence from a redox-active cofactor or the formation of fluorescent products. Enzymes “nanowired” to the tips of carbon nanotubes in accordance with embodiments of the present invention, may enable extremely sensitive probing of biological stimulus-response with high spatial resolution, including product-induced signal transduction.

A hierarchical assembly methodology can interconnect individual two- and / or three-terminal molecules with other nanoelements (nanoparticles, nanowires, etc.) to form solution-based suspensions of nanoscale assemblies. The nanoassemblies can then undergo chemical-selective alignment and attachment to nanopatterned silicon and / or other surfaces for interconnection and / or measurement.