Rights statement: 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
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Solvent-molecule interaction induced gating of charge transport through single-molecule junctions
AU - Tang, Zheng
AU - Hou, Songjun
AU - Wu, Qingqing
AU - Tan, Zhibing
AU - Zheng, Jueting
AU - Li, Ruihao
AU - Liu, Junyang
AU - Yang, Yang
AU - Sadeghi, Hatef
AU - Shi, Jia
AU - Grace, Iain
AU - Lambert, Colin
AU - Hong, Wenjing
N1 - 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
PY - 2020/6/15
Y1 - 2020/6/15
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Solvent-induced gating
KW - Molecular electronics
KW - Single-molecule conductance
KW - Break junctions
U2 - 10.1016/j.scib.2020.03.012
DO - 10.1016/j.scib.2020.03.012
M3 - Journal article
VL - 65
SP - 944
EP - 950
JO - Science Bulletin
JF - Science Bulletin
IS - 11
ER -