Chemistry Breakthrough Offers Unprecedented Control Over Atomic Bonds

"In what's being hailed as an important first for chemistry, an international team of scientists has developed a new technology that can selectively rearrange atomic bonds within a single molecule," reports New Atlas. "The breakthrough allows for an unprecedented level of control over chemical bonds within these structures, and could open up some exciting possibilities in what's known as molecular machinery." "Selective chemistry - the ability to steer reactions at will and to form exactly the chemical bonds you want and no others - is a long-standing quest in chemistry," adds the announcement from IBM Research. "Our team has been able to achieve this level of selectivity in tip-induced redox reactions using scanning probe microscopy."Our technique consisted in using the tip of a scanning probe microscope to apply voltage pulses to single molecules. We were able to target specific chemical bonds in those molecules, breaking those bonds and forging new, different ones to switch back and forth at will among three different molecular structures. The molecules in our experiment all consisted of the same atoms, but differed in the way those atoms were bonded together and arranged in space... Our findings were published today and featured on the cover of Science. Our demonstration of selective and reversible formation of intramolecular covalent bonds is unprecedented. It advances our understanding of chemical reactions and opens a route towards advanced artificial molecular machines.... Imagine one could rearrange bonds inside a molecule at will, transforming one structural isomer into various other ones in a controlled manner. In this paper, we describe a system and a method to make exactly that possible - including the control of the direction of the atomic rearrangements by means of an external driving voltage, and without the use of reagents. Thanks to Slashdot reader Grokew for sharing the story!

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