US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab develops organic electronics

Miquel Salmeron of the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory led an experiment that was for the first time able to determine an organic thin film’s pathways of electrical charge transportation between molecules. The experiment was also able to show how to improve conductance by chemically modifying the organic films. Salmeron said, “This will help improve the performances of future organic electronic devices.” Many believe that organic electronics will eventually play a huge role in molecular computing even though they are still too weak as electrical conductors. Organic electronics’ strengths outweigh their weaknesses, though, as they use carbon-based molecules as conductors, are of low cost, are lightweight and have rubbery flexibility. Up to this point, it was very difficult to move forward without knowing details at the molecular level, but Salmeron says that they can now answer the questions that were originally causing them to “hit a wall.”