Here is a new type of organic molecular transistor capable of sensing and responding to its chemical environment. Colin Nuckolls at Columbia University and colleagues at the Brookhaven National Laboratory have invented the device.
It consists of hydrocarbon molecules that lay in the gap created when a single-walled carbon nanotube is cut in half. When the device is exposed to other molecules, the electrical conductivity of the hydrocarbons changes significantly. And because of this, the transistors can work as ultra-sensitive chemical detectors.
Via: physicsweb
