IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v442y2006i7105d10.1038_nature05037.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dependence of single-molecule junction conductance on molecular conformation

Author

Listed:
  • Latha Venkataraman

    (Department of Physics
    Columbia University)

  • Jennifer E. Klare

    (Department of Chemistry
    Columbia University)

  • Colin Nuckolls

    (Department of Chemistry
    Columbia University)

  • Mark S. Hybertsen

    (Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics
    Columbia University)

  • Michael L. Steigerwald

    (Department of Chemistry)

Abstract

Since it was first suggested1 that a single molecule might function as an active electronic component, a number of techniques have been developed to measure the charge transport properties of single molecules2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. Although scanning tunnelling microscopy observations under high vacuum conditions can allow stable measurements of electron transport, most measurements of a single molecule bonded in a metal–molecule–metal junction exhibit relatively large variations in conductance. As a result, even simple predictions about how molecules behave in such junctions have still not been rigorously tested. For instance, it is well known13,14 that the tunnelling current passing through a molecule depends on its conformation; but although some experiments have verified this effect15,16,17,18, a comprehensive mapping of how junction conductance changes with molecular conformation is not yet available. In the simple case of a biphenyl—a molecule with two phenyl rings linked by a single C–C bond—conductance is expected to change with the relative twist angle between the two rings, with the planar conformation having the highest conductance. Here we use amine link groups to form single-molecule junctions with more reproducible current–voltage characteristics19. This allows us to extract average conductance values from thousands of individual measurements on a series of seven biphenyl molecules with different ring substitutions that alter the twist angle of the molecules. We find that the conductance for the series decreases with increasing twist angle, consistent with a cosine-squared relation predicted for transport through π-conjugated biphenyl systems13.

Suggested Citation

  • Latha Venkataraman & Jennifer E. Klare & Colin Nuckolls & Mark S. Hybertsen & Michael L. Steigerwald, 2006. "Dependence of single-molecule junction conductance on molecular conformation," Nature, Nature, vol. 442(7105), pages 904-907, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:442:y:2006:i:7105:d:10.1038_nature05037
    DOI: 10.1038/nature05037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature05037
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature05037?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chun Tang & Thijs Stuyver & Taige Lu & Junyang Liu & Yiling Ye & Tengyang Gao & Luchun Lin & Jueting Zheng & Wenqing Liu & Jia Shi & Sason Shaik & Haiping Xia & Wenjing Hong, 2023. "Voltage-driven control of single-molecule keto-enol equilibrium in a two-terminal junction system," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Woojung Lee & Liang Li & María Camarasa-Gómez & Daniel Hernangómez-Pérez & Xavier Roy & Ferdinand Evers & Michael S. Inkpen & Latha Venkataraman, 2024. "Photooxidation driven formation of Fe-Au linked ferrocene-based single-molecule junctions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Jinshi Li & Pingchuan Shen & Zeyan Zhuang & Junqi Wu & Ben Zhong Tang & Zujin Zhao, 2023. "In-situ electro-responsive through-space coupling enabling foldamers as volatile memory elements," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    4. Leopoldo Mejía & Pilar Cossio & Ignacio Franco, 2023. "Microscopic theory, analysis, and interpretation of conductance histograms in molecular junctions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, December.
    5. Cong Zhao & Jiazheng Diao & Zhao Liu & Jie Hao & Suhang He & Shaojia Li & Xingxing Li & Guangwu Li & Qiang Fu & Chuancheng Jia & Xuefeng Guo, 2024. "Electrical monitoring of single-event protonation dynamics at the solid-liquid interface and its regulation by external mechanical forces," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Songsong Li & Edward R. Jira & Nicholas H. Angello & Jialing Li & Hao Yu & Jeffrey S. Moore & Ying Diao & Martin D. Burke & Charles M. Schroeder, 2022. "Using automated synthesis to understand the role of side chains on molecular charge transport," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    7. Qi Zhou & Kai Song & Guanxin Zhang & Xuwei Song & Junfeng Lin & Yaping Zang & Deqing Zhang & Daoben Zhu, 2022. "Tetrathiafulvalenes as anchors for building highly conductive and mechanically tunable molecular junctions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:442:y:2006:i:7105:d:10.1038_nature05037. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.