Squaring up with polymers

摘要

Squares may be unfashionable, but for electronic circuitry no other shape will do. A method for making square arrays of polymeric nanoparticles could herald the next generation of miniature silicon chips. Just ten years ago, who would have thought that you would be able to carry around your entire music collection in your shirt pocket, or your complete genome on a key ring? These amazing feats depend on miniature information-storage devices, which in turn are based on tiny integrated circuits. Although current technology is incapable of scaling down circuits much further, self-assembling nanoparticles could be pressed into service to make much smaller circuitry elements. But there's a problem - nanoparticles self-assemble into hexagonal arrays that are incompatible with the square arrangements used in industry-standard circuits. Reporting in Science, Tang et al. describe a method in which appropriately designed polymers form nanoparticles that assemble into square arrays.