Improving Gating Efficiency of Electron Transport through Redox‐Active Molecular Junctions with Conjugated Chains. Issue 6 (22nd January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Fan; Wu, Xiao‐Hui; Zhou, Yi‐Fan; Wang, Ya‐Hao; Zhou, Xiao‐Shun; Shao, Yong; Li, Jian‐Feng; Jin, Shan; Zheng, Ju‐Fang
• Is Part Of: ChemElectroChem. Volume 7:Issue 6(2020)
• Page Start: 1337
• Page End: 1341
• Publication Date: 2020-01-22
• Subjects: single molecular junctions -- electrochemical gating -- scanning tunneling microscopy -- ferrocene -- electron transport; Electrochemistry -- Periodicals; 541.37
• DOI: 10.1002/celc.201902076
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2196-0216

Abstract

Abstract: Tuning the electron transport at the molecular scale is a key step in realizing functional electronic components for molecular electronics, and ongoing interest aims at achieving a higher modulation ratio for single‐molecular transistors. Here, a feasible strategy that connects the redox‐active moieties with conjugated chains is proposed to improve the electrochemical gating efficiency of molecular junctions in ionic liquid. Benefiting from the low energy barrier height between the Fermi level of the electrode and the frontier molecular orbitals, the conductance of C=C−Fc−Py is about one order of magnitude larger and the conductance on/off ratio shows 160 % improvement compared to that of C−C−Fc−Py at the equilibrium potential of Fc + /Fc. This work provides a new way to design high‐performance molecular devices. Abstract : Gate keeper : The electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy break junction (STM‐BJ) method is applied to investigate the conductance of redox‐active ferrocene‐based molecules dependent on gate potentials. The experimental results show that the connecting conjugated chains can significantly improve the electrochemical gating efficiency of molecular junctions in ionic liquid.