Blacksburg (VA) - Chemistry professor Harry Dorn from Virginia Tech said he developed reliable ways to manufacture and construct 80-atom fullerene molecules – and figured out how to stick different elemental atoms inside the 3D structure, such as gadolinium and yttrium to increase the sensitivity of magnetic receptors for MRI devices.  He stumbled onto something researchers have been trying to do for the computer industry, develop a fullerene molecule which is one electron short in its design.  The result: A fundamental molecule-sized base for a semiconductor circuit.

In his research, Dorn has found that single electron-bonded yttrium atom pairs (diatomic) have a unique spin whose properties can be observed and altered.  He believes that if the spin were altered in very specific ways, it could result in even more advanced MRI and NMR sensitivity.  In the process of working on these advances for the medical industry he came across an almost accidental discovery for the big potential in semiconductors.

Over the years, his research has developed very specific protocols for the reliable and reproducible construction of the 80 carbon atom fullerene cage, which is basically a type of geometric 3D structure like we've all seen in chemistry books (other more well known fullerene shapes are buckyballs).

The cage itself is an extremely strong, lightweight and flexible structure with a large amount of volumetric space on the inside for storing atoms or other molecules.  In developing these creation protocols he also discovered a way to substitute one of the carbon atoms with an atom of nitrogen, making the final structure one electron heavy, which ultimately made possible the introduction of two yttrium atoms reliably within the cage.

And now his research is now pointing toward replacing the single nitrogen atom with a single boron atom, the results of which may be useful for extremely high speed semiconductor applications, including quantum computing applications.  "If we replace one of the carbon atoms with boron instead of nitrogen, we would be an electron short, instead of having an extra electron, and now you have the components of a semiconductor," Dorn said.

Dorn has summed up his recent discovery in a rather dry article written in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS) on September 6, 2008.  The article goes into technical detail about the construction of the cage, the techniques and methods used to replace one atom with nitrogen and the theory of using boron as well.  However, the article does not state the significant potential to the semiconductor industry.  For that, Dorn has stepped outside of the technical journal and offered up his thoughts on the matter.

The only question I have is if Dorn is successful in creating a line of carbon-based high-speed semiconductors, possibly sufficient enough to power portable devices or desktop computers, will we be required to pay an additional carbon tax for their use?

Additional carbon tax?

Sep 09, 2008 18:50     

Why would you have to pay an additional carbon tax? For sequestering it from the atmosphere inside of a useful product? Maybe we should start taxing people who plant trees for the same reason. Seriously...
anonymous report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -3

The down side of an American readership

Sep 10, 2008 09:39     

non slapstick humour is lost entirely on them.
Daniel report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1