Zhihai Li et al 2007 Nanotechnology 18 044018 doi:10.1088/0957-4484/18/4/044018
Conductance of redox-active single molecular junctions: an electrochemical approach
Zhihai Li1, Ilya Pobelov1, Bo Han1, Thomas Wandlowski1,4, Alfred Błaszczyk2,5 and Marcel Mayor2,3
Show affiliationsThe conductance of molecular junctions formed of N,N'-bis(n-thioalkyl)-4,4'-bipyridinium bromides or alkanedithiols between a gold (Au) scanning tunnelling microscope tip and a Au(111)-(1 × 1) electrode has been studied at electrified solid/liquid interfaces. A statistical analysis based on large sets of individual current–distance traces was applied to obtain the electrical conductance of single junctions. The one-electron reduction of the viologen moiety from the dication V2+ to the radical cation state 
gives rise to a 50% increase of the junction conductance. Increasing the length of the alkyl spacer units leads to a tunnelling decay constant βCH2 = 5.9–6.1 nm−1. This value is significantly lower than βCH2 = 8.2 nm−1 estimated for molecular junctions of alkanedithiols. The difference is attributed to conformational changes within the two junctions. The contact conductance was estimated to 10 µS.
- PACS
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73.63.-b Electronic transport in nanoscale materials and structures
81.16.Be Chemical synthesis methods
- Subjects
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Surfaces, interfaces and thin films
- Dates
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Issue 4 (31 January 2007)
Received 19 August 2006, in final form 27 October 2006
Published 12 December 2006
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Conductance of redox-active single molecular junctions: an electrochemical approach
Zhihai Li et al 2007 Nanotechnology 18 044018
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