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Nanotechnology

Conductance of redox-active single molecular junctions: an electrochemical approach

Author

Zhihai Li 1, Ilya Pobelov 1, Bo Han 1, Thomas Wandlowski 1,4, Alfred Błaszczyk 2,5 and Marcel Mayor 2,3

Affiliations

1 Institute of Bio- and Nanosystems IBN 3 and cni—Center of Nanoelectronic Systems for Information Technology, Research Center Jülich GmbH, D-52425 Jülich, Germany
2 Institute for Nanotechnology, Research Center Karslruhe GmbH, PO Box 3640, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
3 Department of Chemistry, University of Basel, St Johanns-Ring 19, CH-4056, Basel, Switzerland
4 Author to whom any correspondence should be addressed
5 On leave from: Faculty of Commodity Science, Aleja Niepodleglości 10, 60-967 Poznań, Poland

E-mail

th.wandlowski@fz-juelich.de

Journal

Nanotechnology Create an alert RSS this journal

Issue

Volume 18, Number 4

Citation

Zhihai Li et al 2007 Nanotechnology 18 044018

doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/18/4/044018


Article References Cited By Supplementary Data
 
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Abstract

The 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 \mathrm {V}^{+\bdot } 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

73.63.-b Electronic transport in nanoscale materials and structures

82.45.Fk Electrodes

81.16.Be Chemical synthesis methods

82.45.Yz Nanostructured materials in electrochemistry

82.45.Gj Electrolytes

73.40.Gk Tunneling

Subjects

Surfaces, interfaces and thin films

Nanoscale science and low-D systems

Chemical physics and physical chemistry

Dates

Issue 4 (31 January 2007)

Received 19 August 2006 , in final form 27 October 2006

Published 12 December 2006



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