Studying single ions and molecules with atomic-scale wires and gaps

亚利桑那州立大学陶农建教授在分析和表面化学项目的支持下，制造了具有量子化电导的原子尺度金属线。金属是电化学沉积或蚀刻的。研究了电荷输运和吸附效应等电化学过程。本项目主要研究电解液中相对简单的离子和氧化还原分子及其与纳米线的相互作用。当单个离子和分子被困在或从分子尺度的间隙中逃逸时，它们可以通过隧道电流被探测到。这个项目的目标是将电子产品小型化到分子大小。学生在电化学和纳米制造技能方面享受跨学科培训，并受益于与摩托罗拉的密切合作。该实验室的制造方法已在世界各地的许多实验室中得到应用，使可靠的单分子测量更易于开发。为了了解纳米线在分析样品和单个生物细胞等复杂环境中的特性，需要进行溶剂化和离子化研究。

Professor Nongjian Tao of Arizona State University is supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program to fabricate atomic-scale metal wires with quantized conductance. Metal is deposited or etched electrochemically. Electrochemical processes such as charge transport and adsorbate effects are studied. This project focuses on relatively simple ions and redox molecules in electrolyes and their interaction with the nanowires. Single ions and molecules are detected via tunneling currents as they trap in or escape from a molecular-scale gap. The project relates to the goals of miniaturizing electronics to molecular-size scale. Students enjoy interdisciplinary training in electrochemistry and nanofabrication skills and benefit from close collaboration with Motorola. The fabrication method from this lab has found applications in a number of labs around the world, making reliable single molecule measurements more available for development. Studies on solvation and ions are required to understand the characteristics of the nanowires in complex environments such as analytic samples and single biological cells.