New horizons of chemistry: Single molecules

The chemistry has reached its upper boundary, i.e., the ability to detect, fix in space and identify a single molecule, measure almost any of its properties and observe its chemical transformations and functioning. At this frontier, procedures for manipulating single molecules are developed and the element base for nanooptics, nanomechanics and nanoelectronics is created. This is the prologue for a new technological civilisation, viz., to molecular electronics which operates with electric voltages of the order of millivolts and electric currents of the order of nanoamperes. The bibliography includes 101 references. © 2006 Russian Academy of Sciences and Turpion Ltd.