The observation of truly metallic behavior in an organic material heralds a new generation of electronic devices
Friday, February 15, 2013 - 10:00
in Physics & Chemistry
When we think about metals, objects like copper wires and sheets of iron spring to mind. However, organic materials—those based, as all living matter, on carbon and oxygen atoms—can also exhibit metallic behavior. Some organic compounds have been established as good electric conductors, but these systems can be full-fledged metals as Reizo Kato of the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, Wako, and co-workers in Japan and China have shown. They found unambiguous signatures in an organic compound which establish that the material behaves at low temperatures precisely like most metals.