AsianScientist (Jun 23, 2014) – Super fast, solid state computers of the future could be built using phthalocyanines, following the demonstration that they have properties which make them suitable as molecular switches. This research has been published as the cover story in Chemical Communications.
Phthalocyanines (Pc) are 1-nm-sized synthetic organic molecules. Owing to their characteristic light absorption/emission, electronic properties and planar structures, Pc derivatives often play a key role in various chemical systems such as electronic devices, catalysts, and so on.
In particular, a square-shaped Pc (H2Pc) is able to switch the location of its adjacent single and double bond, a property known as tautomerization. The timescale of the tautomerization of H2Pc in the crystal form was experimentally estimated to be fast, over 100,000 times per second at room temperature. On the other hand, theoretical calculations predict that isolated H2Pc will undergo much slower tautomerization.
Professor Hiroyuki Noji and Dr. Tomohiro Ikeda at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Engineering Department of Applied Chemistry and Professor Ryota Iino at the National Institutes of Natural Sciences Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience have successfully measured the rate of the tautomerization of an isolated H2Pc molecule at the air/glass interface by using single-molecule optical microscopy. The rate was estimated to be several seconds per transformation, which is consistent with previous theoretical calculations.
This slow tautomerization means that the H2Pc molecule meets the requirements to function as a molecular switch: a single molecule that has multiple distinguishable states. Therefore, H2Pc could be the basis of molecular memory, if methods to control its tautomerization through chemical, electrical or optical means are further developed. The dense arrangement of H2Pc molecules would allow the realization of high performance materials capable of storing as much as 13 terabytes of data per square centimeter.
The article can be found at: Ikeda et al. (2014) Real-time Fluorescence Visualization of Slow Tautomerization of Single Free-base Phthalocyanines Under Ambient Conditions.
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Source: University of Tokyo.
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