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Electrical engineers are starting to consider materials made from organic molecules -- including those made from carbon atoms -- as an intriguing alternative to the silicon and metals used currently in electronic devices, since they are easier and cheaper to produce. A RIKEN-led research team has now demonstrated the origin of magnetism in organic molecules, a property that is rarely found in this class of material, but is vital if a full range of organic electronic devices is to be created.

The 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics raised the profile of graphene --a super strong one-atom thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal pattern with countless potential commercial applications.

The sweet smell of benzene gave birth to the term ‘aromatic’ molecules, but it is the chemical bonds within these compounds that have fascinated researchers for almost 200 years. Encasing alternating double- and single-bonded carbon atoms inside a flat ring allows so-called ‘pi’-electrons to delocalize and move around the cyclic framework. And thanks to the curious rules of quantum mechanics, this pi-electron sharing has radical consequences for differently sized rings.