The creators believe that the new method used to create this nanowire could one day be employed to make minuscule wires for a range of applications, including electricity-generating fabrics, optoelectronic devices, and even superconducting materials that conduct electricity with almost no loss.

Composed of interlocking cages of carbon and hydrogen, diamondoids occur naturally in petroleum fluids. For this research, the tiny molecules were extracted and separated by the researchers and a sulphur atom was attached to each one. In a solution, the sulphur-loaded diamondoids were made to bond with copper ions to create the nanowire building blocks. 

In the solution, the building blocks clumped together via a phenomenon known as the van der Waals force, that defines such things as the way certain molecules are attracted or repelled from each other and how geckos are able to walk on glass.