Solvent-molecule interaction induced gating of charge transport through single-molecule junctions

Tang, Zheng and Hou, Songjun and Wu, Qingqing and Tan, Zhibing and Zheng, Jueting and Li, Ruihao and Liu, Junyang and Yang, Yang and Sadeghi, Hatef and Shi, Jia and Grace, Iain and Lambert, Colin and Hong, Wenjing (2020) Solvent-molecule interaction induced gating of charge transport through single-molecule junctions. Science Bulletin, 65 (11). pp. 944-950.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2020.03.012

Abstract

To explore solvent gating of single-molecule electrical conductance due to solvent-molecule interactions, charge transport through single-molecule junctions with different anchoring groups in various solvent environments was measured by using the mechanically controllable break junction technique. We found that the conductance of single-molecule junctions can be tuned by nearly an order of magnitude by varying the polarity of solvent. Furthermore, gating efficiency due to solvent–molecule interactions was found to be dependent on the choice of the anchor group. Theoretical calculations revealed that the polar solvent shifted the molecular-orbital energies, based on the coupling strength of the anchor groups. For weakly coupled molecular junctions, the polar solvent–molecule interaction was observed to reduce the energy gap between the molecular orbital and the Fermi level of the electrode and shifted the molecular orbitals. This resulted in a more significant gating effect than that of the strongly coupled molecules. This study suggested that solvent–molecule interaction can significantly affect the charge transport through single-molecule junctions.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Journal or Publication Title:

Science Bulletin

Additional Information:

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Science Bulletin. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Science Bulletin, 65, 11, 2020 DOI: 10.1016/j.scib.2020.03.012

Subjects:

?? SOLVENT-INDUCED GATINGMOLECULAR ELECTRONICSSINGLE-MOLECULE CONDUCTANCEBREAK JUNCTIONS ??

Departments:

Faculty of Science and Technology > Physics

ID Code:

142687

Deposited By:

ep_importer_pure

Deposited On:

08 Apr 2020 14:10

Refereed?:

Yes