Here’s a neat trick — press two pieces of different organic insulating materials together, and where they touch they become metallic conductors.

This is the first time that metallic conduction has been seen at the interface between two different organic materials. The discovery could lead to new applications in molecular electronics, such as solar-power cells, and other devices that need to work on very small scales.

Alberto Morpurgo and colleagues at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, took crystals of two materials, tetrathiofulvalen (TTF) and 7,7,8,8,-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ). They pressed the crystals together, allowing electrostatic forces — much like those that make dust cling to surfaces — to hold them against one another.

The researchers then measured the resistance at four points along the interface between the crystals, at a range of temperatures. The resistance for the best samples ranged from 1,000 to 10,000 ohms per sample (each sample was about 500 micrometres square)...

Full article: http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080613/full/news.2008.890.html?s=news_rss