The initial idea, fueling part of the push for nanotechnology, was that electronic circuits could be self-assembled by choosing the correct combination of molecular building blocks. This paper from the group of Oren A. Scherman at University of Cambridge shows how small molecular circuits with gold contacts can be self-assembled.
Molecular interactions between cucurbit[8]urils hosts and two—an electron deficient and an electron rich—guests allow for the end-to-end linking of multiple gold nanorods. While several examples of end-to-end linking of gold nanorods have been published, see for example work by Kumar and by Jain, this supramolecular approach is interesting as it allows for processing in water.
It will be interesting to see what the next paper will bring. Is the next step more complex self-assembled structures or to investigate the potential of these structure by contacting the gold nanorods and investigating the electron transport characteristics?
by Dr Thomas Just Sørensen
Supramolecular alignment of gold nanorods via cucurbit[8]uril ternary complex formation
Samuel T. Jones, Jameel M. Zayed and Oren A. Scherman
Nanoscale, 2013, 5, 5299-5302
DOI: 10.1039/C3NR01454A
