Recently I participated in the first round of a competition being put on by my school, and competed for a nomination to the school-wide competition open to all PhD students at UA. This competition aims to increase the ability of graduate students to communicate their research to a varied and general audience. We are to translate our dissertations into a speech, 3 minutes in length or less that is able to be grasped by the public at large.
I thought to myself initially, "Oh yeah, piece of cake. I've been explaining my work to my family all along!" Trouble is, my family is full of scientists and engineers. I haven't really been trained to think outside of a wider perspective, which is my main driving force for this exercise. I thought I would post here the text of my speech, as "finalized" by the judges so that you, my readership, could offer comments and suggestions. I hope you enjoy it!
"When I was an undergraduate, my
physical chemistry professor was one of those “back in my day”-type guys that
would talk about his experiences at Los Alamos National Labs and the punch card
computer he had to use- it was big as a whole room! Consumer electronic devices are being made to
fit into ever smaller packages and computers are being built with ever smaller
circuits. Imagine sensors that can be eaten or medical devices implanted in the
body without any impediment!
My project takes this to a new
extreme. It focuses on the design and manufacture of molecules that will replace
current electronic components. My strategy is to tailor a molecule's
three-dimensional structure and thus custom-design molecules that behave the
same as components already found in technology today, while cutting size by
roughly 1000x and using energy much more efficiently. This would be like
shrinking the function of a laptop to fit on a contact lens!
Specifically, I aim to make
single molecule diodes, which carry electrical current in one direction, but
prevent it from flowing in the opposite direction. Today, most diodes are made
of silicon, which requires the device to be manufactured from a large base to a
small finished product. This process has its limits and the building of
molecular electronics focuses from a bottom-up design, which can reduce waste. I’ve
asked the question- how small can we make these diodes? Where’s the limit? I’ve
proposed one possible limit, a single bond between two carbon atoms. Up until
now, construction of molecular diodes required three components to be made
separately over several steps and then brought together as a final step- but I’ve
simplified this process by producing a molecule in a single reaction with these
three components all at once. The bridge component, key to function, is a
single bond- no extra atoms involved at all!
From there, I’m able to take
advantage of tricks within certain atoms’ properties to make these molecules
attach themselves to metal surfaces much like an atomic version of alligator
clips clipping to a battery and circuit.
Taking advantage of lower
current flow and higher operating efficiency would lead to the production of
smaller and faster circuits in future technology. This could lead to paper-thin
flexible tablets, wearable electronics like contact lenses or even miniaturized
pacemakers!
And then, someday in the future,
I can complain to future chemistry students about how we had to suffer with
flat, bulky, inflexible devices- back in
my day."
 |
| Image Credit: PhD Comics |
What do you think? Where could it be more plain?
That's pretty simple and clear. So electrons can only go one way between the two carbon atoms, and the bond is the bridge between them?
ReplyDeleteExactly. The asymmetry built into the metal-molecule-metal sandwich only allow electrons to go in one direction, because it would take too much energy to flow back the other way. Think of it like rolling a car across a literal bridge that has been tilted where one bank is lower than the other. The car can roll in neutral in one direction but you would actually have to put it in drive to go the other way!
Delete