THE SOUND OF SCIENCE
The National Research Council’s Adam Bergren plays guitar Monday in a lab at the National Institute for Nanotechnology. Bergren and U of A professor Richard McCreery have developed a guitar pedal that uses molecular electronic technology.
Two Alberta chemists have created the first commercial application of molecular electronics — a guitar pedal made with a molecular device to help musicians improve sound quality.
Rick McCreery, a University of Alberta chemistry professor and senior researcher at the National Institute of Nanotechnology, said the initial goal was to find out what would happen if molecules were part of an electronic circuit.
Molecular electronics is the study and application of molecular building blocks to fabricate electronic components.
His team made an electronic junction device with two contacts, like any other electronic but with molecules in between that carry electrons.
Then, Adam Bergren, a senior research officer at the institute, came into the picture.
An amateur guitarist outside of the lab, he was looking for a way to modify guitar pedals for a better sound.
“Seeing how those circuits worked, I realized that putting in this molecular device would be an ideal way to achieve a sound that I wanted,” Bergren said.
So, they did just that.
The molecular junction device they created and the pedal — which was designed by Bergren — are now manufactured in Edmonton, and the two have created their own business, Nanolog Audio, currently selling their limited inventory of this new product.
McCreery said the molecular junctions make a big difference to the harmonics and provide a warmer sound than what you typically get with silicon, which is the standard material in consumer electronics.
Bergren said the most unique part of this new commercial product is the sound can be adjusted and tuned by changing only one nanometre worth of molecules.
McCreery said this commercial application demonstrates a molecular device is practical and can do something that is very difficult with silicon. He said they hope to expand on its uses, and audio equipment is just the beginning.
“Guitar pedals are a serious business, but there are much bigger things that are potential uses of molecular electronics,” he said. “Such as high-speed application, chemical sensing, detecting light and generating light.”
Guitar pedals are a serious business, but there are much bigger things that are potential uses of molecular electronics.