Pentacene Seen

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk It may look like a piece of honeycomb, but this lattice-shaped image is the first ever close-up view of a single molecule. Scientists from IBM used an atomic force microscope (AFM) to reveal the chemical bonds within a molecule. 'This is the first time that all the atoms in a molecule have been imaged,' lead researcher Leo Gross said. The delicate inner structure of a pentacene molecule has been imaged with an atomic force microscope The researchers focused on a single molecule of pentacene, which is commonly used in solar cells. The rectangular-shaped organic molecule is made up of 22 carbon atoms and 14 hydrogen atoms. Textbook model: A computer-generated image of how we're used to seeing a molecule represented with balls and sticks