New research has used platinum to help create a high-density memory chip that is believed to be on a par with what experts expect to be routine by 2020.

The memory circuit has been built from molecules and nanometre-sized platinum wires and could revolutionise the information sector by allowing greater storage of information on tiny memory chips.

Platinum wires were placed on a layer of molecules to create groups of molecules sandwiched between the criss-crossed wires. When a voltage was applied across each molecule node, the molecules were toggled between two states, allowing for them to be switched between 0 and 1.

This means that the technology allows for the storage of information and the Scientific American reports that such an approach is expected to become standard procedure for chip manufacturers by the end of the next decade.

However, it remains to be seen whether this technology will ever make it into the computer. Jonathan Green, the author of the report published in the journal Nature, admitted: "The dominant criticism is this is a nice laboratory demonstration, but how will this fit into the real world."

He added: "You have to put in the science before you can get the technology."

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