Credit: Image courtesy of Dr. Rebekka Klausen, Johns Hopkins University
Finding new ways to make better materials for electronic circuits is one way to make a better device. A new polymer, called poly(cyclosilane) (bottom right), is essentially an ultra-small silicon “chip” that resembles a fragment of the atomic lattice of silicon (left), a foundational material found in most electronics. The chemical synthesis of the new polymer was possible due to a specially designed, novel building block (monomer) (top) that has a pattern of chemical connection points that allow growth of the polymeric structure in only the desired direction.