Applications, molecular electronics engineering

Once the synthetic methodologies were developed, the research efforts were focused on the preparation of photoactive systems where fullerenes had already shown potential applicability, such as organic photovoltaic materials. In these molecular-scale engineered systems, a fullerene electron acceptor contained in one submolecular fragment is coupled with an electron donor contained in the opposite component. Zinc porphyrins were thus coupled to in many different architectures such as, for instance, in that shown in Scheme 9.11, where the ZnP was appended to... 

Molecular and supermolecular electronics are broad and interesting subjects. Moreover, they require a multidisciplinary approach where collaboration between biologists, chemists, computer scientists, electronic engineers and physicists is of paramount importance. To illustrate these features, this article concentrates on Langmuir-Blodgctt films. Equal emphasis is placed on their importance in basic science and on their potential applications, especially in the area of electronics. 

The field of molecular electronics may be considered to encompass much more than molecular electronic devices. In its broadest context, molecular electronics may be regarded as simply the application of molecules, primarily organic molecules, to electronics. This definition would include such areas as liquid crystalline materials, piezoelectric materials such as poly(vinylidine fluoride), chemically sensitive field-eflFect transistors (CHEMFET), and the whole range of electroactive polymers. These applications are beyond the scope of this book and are covered in other reviews 34, 33). However, given the basic tenet of molecular electronics, namely, the ability to engineer and assemble molecular structures into a useful device, the broader definition raises the question of whether organic molecules can be specifically assembled or engineered for unique applications in electronics. 

Molecular design and rational synthesis of inorganic microporous crystalline materials are frontier subjects in the fields of zeolites science and molecular engineering. Zeolite synthesis is an active field of research because zeolites with uniform micropores are important in many industrial processes in catalysis, adsorption, and separation, and are finding new applications in electronics, magnetism, chemical sensors, and medicine, etc.12 91 Synthesis of such materials typically involves crystallization from a gel medium under hydrothermal/solvothermal conditions in the presence of organic amines as... 

The evolution of the chemistry of TMPOs and TMPROs parallels the contemporary interest in properties of inorganic solid state materials. These useful physicochemical properties, derived from molecular recognition, endow such materials with applications to sorption, catalysis, molecular electronics, and optical systems (299-303). Molecular recognition, in this sense of appropriate juxtapositions of functional groups for reactivity and cooperative electronic effects, is often related to the periodicity of the crystalline state. Such considerations render the goals of crystal engineering quite attractive (301). 

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