in the 1（生机勃勃的） field of nano-science there are now many ways of 'writing' 2-scale messages on a surface, one 3 at a time. the trouble is that writing a molecule at a time takes a very long time. "it is much better if the 4 can be persuaded to gather together and 5 an entire pattern 6（同时地） , by themselves. one such pattern is an indefinitely long line, which can then provide the basis for the ultimately thin molecular 'wire' required for nano-circuitry," says john polanyi of the university of toronto's department of chemistry, co- author of the paper to be published on nature chemistry this week.
the paper describes, for the first time, a simple molecule that each time it chemically reacts with a surface prepares a 7 neighbouring site at which the next incoming molecule reacts. accordingly, these molecules, when simply dosed (blindly) on the surface, spontaneously grow 8 'molecular-chains'. these molecular chains are the desired prototypes of nano-wires.
the experiments were conducted by graduate student tingbin lim in the john polanyi scanning tunneling microscopy laboratory at u of t, in conjunction with theory performed by postdoctoral fellow dr. wei ji in the hong guo laboratory in the department of physics, mcgill university. the experiments in toronto yielded visual evidence of the chains, and the theory at mcgill explained why the chains spontaneously grew.
"early-on, far-sighted 9 research centre canada (xrcc) recognized this opportunity for 10 patterns at the molecular scale, 11 persuading ontario centres of 12 (oce) and the federal natural sciences and engineering research council (nserc), through its strategic grant program, to fund the bulk of the research costs in our lab," says polanyi.
"the experiments constituted the doctoral work of a recent phd student in the toronto laboratory, dr. tingbin lim an outstanding student who came from singapore to join our group and now makes his home as a scientist in canada."
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