1,000 Times Thinner Than Human Hair! Scientists Create Thinnest Electrical Wire

A research group has developed the thinnest possible electrical wires, with a size of just three atoms wide using fragments of molecule-sized diamonds, the smallest diamonds we have.

The team composed of scientists from Stanford University and the US Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory published their work in Nature Materials.

According to Science Alert, the nanowire is made of a string of diamondoids attached to sulphur and copper atoms. Diamondoids occur naturally in petroleum fluids, are small cage-like structures made of carbon and hydrogen. Moreover, because the molecules are attracted to each other, the nanowire assembles itself in unique way --- attaching itself like a like molecular LEGO. This marks the first time self-assemblage has been done with inorganic chemicals.

Basically, the needle-like wires have a semiconducting core (copper and sulfur) surrounded by an insulating shell in the form of diamondoids.

"Much like LEGO blocks, they only fit together in certain ways that are determined by their size and shape," said Stanford graduate student Fei Hua Li, who played a critical role in synthesizing the tiny wires and figuring out how they grew said in a press release. "The copper and sulfur atoms of each building block wound up in the middle, forming the conductive core of the wire, and the bulkier diamondoids wound up on the outside, forming the insulating shell."

Such exceptional property and the miniscule size of the materials use could be useful to fabrics that generate electricity simply through movement, optoelectronic devices that employ both electricity and light, and superconducting materials that conduct electricity without defects, International Business Times reported.

"What we have shown here is that we can make tiny, conductive wires of the smallest possible size that essentially assemble themselves," said Hao Yan, a Stanford postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the paper, added. "The process is a simple, one-pot synthesis. You dump the ingredients together and you can get results in half an hour. It's almost as if the diamondoids know where they want to go."