"Seeing" molecular interactions could give boost to organic electronics



Using a new methodology, researchers

have directly seen how organic molecules bind

to other materials at the atomic level.

This information can lead to increasing the

life span of electronic devices, for example.



For the first time, researchers have directly seen how organic molecules bind to other materials at the atomic level. Using a special kind of electron microscopy, this information can lead to increasing the life span of electronic devices, for example.



Organic materials are increasingly being applied in cutting-edge technologies. Organic semiconductors, for example, are being used to develop paper-thin, plastic LED screens.



Materials scientists need to understand the structures and physical properties of organic materials at the atomic level to optimize the efficiency and increase the life span of devices that incorporate them.



Previously used techniques for this purpose have had their limitations although high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) has recently successfully been used to visualize the structures, movements and reactions of single, small organic molecules.



Now, for the first time, a team of researchers from Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) and Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology together with colleagues from Finland's Tampere University of Technology has successfully used HR-TEM to visualize a certain type of organic molecular interaction at the atomic level.



They linked pyrene, a hydrocarbon composed of four flat benzene rings, to a single-walled carbon nanotube that the researchers used as a scaffold for this purpose. They then used HR-TEM to see the link.



"This same methodology can be used to study any organic molecules that contain an aryl group," says Tomokazu Umeyama, the study's lead investigator. An aryl group is a group of atoms derived from benzene by removing a hydrogen atom. "The methodology has the potential to provide indispensible information regarding molecular interactions," he says.



The study was published on July 15, 2015 in Nature Communications.

Publication Information

Molecular interactions on single-walled carbon nanotubes revealed by high-resolution transmission microscopy



Tomokazu Umeyama1, Jinseok Baek1, Yuta Sato2, Kazu Suenaga2*, Fawzi Abou-Chahine3, Nikolai V. Tkachenko3*, Helge Lemmetyinen4,5, and Hiroshi Imahori1,4*



*Corresponding author



Nature Communications | Published Online 16 July 2015

doi:10.1038/ncomms8732

Department of Molecular Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan. Nanomaterials Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), AIST Central 5, Tsukuba 305-8565, Japan. Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 541, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland. Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (WPI-iCeMS), Kyoto University, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan.

News coverage

Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun (July 16, 2015 Page 29)

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