The Use of Polyhedral Materials in Molecular Electronics and Nanostructural Applications
Damian G. Allis*, and James T. Spencer
Syracuse University,
Syracuse, NY 13244 USA
This is an abstract
for a presentation given at the
Eighth
Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
There will be a link from here to the full article when it is
available on the web.
Some of the most remarkable scientific achievements in recent years have been in the areas of new materials and macromolecular design. Theoreticians are now proposing the fabrication of atomic and "molecular" assemblies on the nanometer scale with atomic precision. While the realization of this potential may be far in the future, these proposed architectures are serving to focus both the theoretical and initial synthetic studies.
We have begun work directed at using polyhedral clusters as synthetic building blocks in the fabrication of larger nanometer-scale assemblies with carefully controlled properties and structures. Our work has employed both calculational methods to design and optimize proposed synthons and experimental studies aimed towards the synthesis of polyhedral building blocks. The calculations we have employed have included molecular mechanics methods and molecular orbital (semiempirical and ab initio) techniques.
In this poster we present the results of our theoretical studies in the design and fabrication of molecular architectures employing polyhedra as structural elements. With current interest in molecular electronics for applications in nanoscale devices, we will also discuss the use of polyhedral materials as potential components in molecular electronic design.
*Corresponding Address:
Damian G. Allis, Syracuse University
1-014 Center for Science and Technology, 111 College Place
Syracuse, NY 13244 USA
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://web.syr.edu/~dgallis/
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