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Guo Y, Li M, Zhao C, Zhang Y, Jia C, Guo X. Understanding Emergent Complexity from a Single-Molecule Perspective. JACS AU 2024; 4:1278-1294. [PMID: 38665639 PMCID: PMC11040556 DOI: 10.1021/jacsau.3c00845] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/29/2023] [Revised: 02/27/2024] [Accepted: 02/27/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024]
Abstract
Molecules, with structural, scaling, and interaction diversities, are crucial for the emergence of complex behaviors. Interactions are essential prerequisites for complex systems to exhibit emergent properties that surpass the sum of individual component characteristics. Tracing the origin of complex molecular behaviors from interactions is critical to understanding ensemble emergence, and requires insights at the single-molecule level. Electrical signals from single-molecule junctions enable the observation of individual molecular behaviors, as well as intramolecular and intermolecular interactions. This technique provides a foundation for bottom-up explorations of emergent complexity. This Perspective highlights investigations of various interactions via single-molecule junctions, including intramolecular orbital and weak intermolecular interactions and interactions in chemical reactions. It also provides potential directions for future single-molecule junctions in complex system research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yilin Guo
- Beijing
National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, National Biomedical Imaging
Center, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, 292 Chengfu Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, P. R. China
| | - Mingyao Li
- School
of Materials Science and Engineering, Peking
University, No.5 Yiheyuan
Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, P. R. China
| | - Cong Zhao
- Center
of Single-Molecule Sciences, Institute of Modern Optics, Frontiers
Science Center for New Organic Matter, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale
Optical Information Science and Technology, College of Electronic
Information and Optical Engineering, Nankai
University, 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin 300350, P. R. China
| | - Yanfeng Zhang
- School
of Materials Science and Engineering, Peking
University, No.5 Yiheyuan
Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, P. R. China
| | - Chuancheng Jia
- Center
of Single-Molecule Sciences, Institute of Modern Optics, Frontiers
Science Center for New Organic Matter, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale
Optical Information Science and Technology, College of Electronic
Information and Optical Engineering, Nankai
University, 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin 300350, P. R. China
| | - Xuefeng Guo
- Beijing
National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, National Biomedical Imaging
Center, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, 292 Chengfu Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, P. R. China
- Center
of Single-Molecule Sciences, Institute of Modern Optics, Frontiers
Science Center for New Organic Matter, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale
Optical Information Science and Technology, College of Electronic
Information and Optical Engineering, Nankai
University, 38 Tongyan Road, Jinnan District, Tianjin 300350, P. R. China
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2
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Hight MO, Wong JY, Pimentel AE, Su TA. Intramolecular London Dispersion Interactions in Single-Molecule Junctions. J Am Chem Soc 2024; 146:4716-4726. [PMID: 38325000 PMCID: PMC10885141 DOI: 10.1021/jacs.3c12183] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/09/2024]
Abstract
This work shows the first example of using intramolecular London dispersion interactions to control molecular geometry and quantum transport in single-molecule junctions. Flexible σ-bonded molecular junctions typically occupy straight-chain geometries due to steric effects. Here, we synthesize a series of thiomethyl-terminated oligo(dimethylsilmethylene)s that bear [CH2-Si(CH3)2]n repeat units, where all backbone dihedral states are sterically equivalent. Scanning tunneling microscopy break-junction (STM-BJ) measurements and theoretical calculations indicate that in the absence of a strong steric bias concerted intramolecular London dispersion interactions staple the carbosilane backbone into coiled conformations that remain intact even as the junction is stretched to its breakpoint. As these kinked conformations are highly resistive to electronic transport, we observe record-high conductance decay values on an experimental junction length basis (β = 1.86 ± 0.12 Å-1). These studies reveal the potential of using intramolecular London dispersion interactions to design single-molecule electronics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew O Hight
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States
| | - Joshua Y Wong
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States
| | - Ashley E Pimentel
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States
| | - Timothy A Su
- Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States
- Materials Science & Engineering Program, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, United States
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3
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Guo MM, Jiang Y, Wang JY, Chen ZN, Hou S, Zhang QC. Effectively Enhancing the Conductance of Asymmetric Molecular Wires by Aligning the Energy Level and Symmetrizing the Coupling. LANGMUIR : THE ACS JOURNAL OF SURFACES AND COLLOIDS 2024. [PMID: 38332611 DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.3c03530] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/10/2024]
Abstract
An asymmetric structure is an important strategy for designing highly conductive molecular wires for a gap-fixed molecular circuit. As the conductance enhancement in the current strategy is still limited to about 2 times, we inserted a methylene group as a spacer in a conjugated structure to modulate the structural symmetry. We found that the conductance drastically enhanced in the asymmetric molecular wire to 1.5 orders of magnitude as high as that in the symmetric molecular wire. First-principles quantum transport studies attributed the effective enhancement to the synchronization of improved energy alignment and nearly symmetric coupling between the frontier orbitals and the electrodes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meng-Meng Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, People's Republic of China
| | - Yuxuan Jiang
- Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, School of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China
- Centre for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China
| | - Jin-Yun Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhong-Ning Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, People's Republic of China
| | - Shimin Hou
- Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, School of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China
- Centre for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China
| | - Qian-Chong Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, People's Republic of China
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4
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Pan X, Matthews K, Lawson B, Kamenetska M. Single-Molecule Conductance of Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonding in Histamine on Gold. J Phys Chem Lett 2023; 14:8327-8333. [PMID: 37695735 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.3c02172] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 09/13/2023]
Abstract
We perform single-molecule conductance measurements and DFT calculations on histamine, a biogenic amine that contains a flexible aliphatic linker and several nitrogen moieties with a potential for hydrogen bonding. Our study determines that junctions containing the free-base form of histamine can bridge through a molecular structure containing an intramolecular hydrogen bond. Conductance of this structure is higher than that through the saturated aliphatic linker. Flicker noise analysis of junction conductance confirms that transport occurs through the hydrogen bond and establishes a benchmark for noise measurements in hydrogen-bonded junctions. Overall, our work provides insights into the formation and conduction of intramolecular hydrogen bonding in single-molecule conductance measurements and into the conformations of the neurotransmitter histamine on noble metal surfaces.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoyun Pan
- Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States
| | - Katherine Matthews
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania 1904, United States
| | - Brent Lawson
- Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States
| | - Maria Kamenetska
- Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States
- Department of Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States
- Divistion of Material Science and Engineering, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, United States
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Zhao X, Zhang X, Yin K, Zhang S, Zhao Z, Tan M, Xu X, Zhao Z, Wang M, Xu B, Lee T, Scheer E, Xiang D. In Situ Adjustable Nanogaps and In-Plane Break Junctions. SMALL METHODS 2023; 7:e2201427. [PMID: 36732898 DOI: 10.1002/smtd.202201427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2022] [Revised: 12/27/2022] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
The ability to precisely regulate the size of a nanogap is essential for establishing high-yield molecular junctions, and it is crucial for the control of optical signals in extreme optics. Although remarkable strategies for the fabrication of nanogaps are proposed, wafer-compatible nanogaps with freely adjustable gap sizes are not yet available. Herein, two approaches for constructing in situ adjustable metal gaps are proposed which allow Ångstrom modulation resolution by employing either a lateral expandable piezoelectric sheet or a stretchable membrane. These in situ adjustable nanogaps are further developed into in-plane molecular break junctions, in which the gaps can be repeatedly closed and opened thousands of times with self-assembled molecules. The conductance of the single 1,4-benzenediamine (BDA) and the BDA molecular dimer is successfully determined using the proposed strategy. The measured conductance agreeing well with the data by employing another well-established scanning tunneling microscopy break junction technique provides insight into the formation of molecule dimer via hydrogen bond at single molecule level. The wafer-compatible nanogaps and in-plane dynamical break-junctions provide a potential approach to fabricate highly compacted devices using a single molecule as a building block and supply a promising in-plane technique to address the dynamical properties of single molecules.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xueyan Zhao
- Institute of Modern Optics and Center of Single-Molecule Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China
| | - Xubin Zhang
- Institute of Modern Optics and Center of Single-Molecule Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China
| | - Kaikai Yin
- Institute of Modern Optics and Center of Single-Molecule Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China
| | - Surong Zhang
- Institute of Modern Optics and Center of Single-Molecule Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China
| | - Zhikai Zhao
- Institute of Modern Optics and Center of Single-Molecule Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China
| | - Min Tan
- Institute of Modern Optics and Center of Single-Molecule Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China
| | - Xiaona Xu
- Institute of Modern Optics and Center of Single-Molecule Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China
| | - Zhibin Zhao
- Institute of Modern Optics and Center of Single-Molecule Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China
| | - Maoning Wang
- Institute of Modern Optics and Center of Single-Molecule Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China
| | - Bingqian Xu
- College of Engineering, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA
| | - Takhee Lee
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Institute of Applied Physics, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Korea
| | - Elke Scheer
- Department of Physics, University of Konstanz, 78457, Konstanz, Germany
| | - Dong Xiang
- Institute of Modern Optics and Center of Single-Molecule Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Micro-scale Optical Information Science and Technology, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China
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6
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Xu SN, Zheng Y, Ye JY, Chen ZY, Yan JF, Geng YH, Hong W, Yuan YF. Conductance of o-carborane-based wires with different substitution patterns. Dalton Trans 2023; 52:4349-4354. [PMID: 36916817 DOI: 10.1039/d3dt00011g] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 03/05/2023]
Abstract
Here, we report the synthesis, structure, and single-molecule conductance of three o-carborane-based molecular wires (ortho-, meta- and para-CN) with multiple conduction channels. The effect of connectivity in target wires compared with the corresponding phenyl-centered wires was studied using the scanning tunneling microscope break junction (STM-BJ) technique and theoretical calculations. Interestingly, the three-dimensional structure in o-carborane-based wires can effectively promote the through-space transmission paths or the formation of stable molecular junctions compared to the corresponding phenyl-centered wires. Moreover, the significant conductance difference of o-carborane-based wires was due to the combination of multiple conduction channels and quantum interference. Understanding the effects of different bridging groups and anchor group substitution patterns provides guidelines for designing o-carborane-based multichannel molecular wires.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shi-Nuo Xu
- Department of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China.
| | - Yan Zheng
- State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
| | - Jing-Yao Ye
- State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
| | - Zhong-Yang Chen
- Department of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China.
| | - Jian-Feng Yan
- Department of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China.
| | - Yan-Hou Geng
- Joint School of National University of Singapore and Tianjin University, International Campus of Tianjin University, Fuzhou 350207, China.,School of Materials Science and Engineering and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
| | - Wenjing Hong
- State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
| | - Yao-Feng Yuan
- Department of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou 350108, China.
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7
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Li X, Zhou S, Zhao Q, Chen Y, Qi P, Zhang Y, Wang L, Guo C, Chen S. Supramolecular Enhancement of Charge Transport through Pillar[5]arene-Based Self-Assembled Monolayers. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 2023; 62:e202216987. [PMID: 36728903 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202216987] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2022] [Revised: 01/15/2023] [Accepted: 02/02/2023] [Indexed: 02/03/2023]
Abstract
Intermolecular charge transport is one of the essential modes for modulating charge transport in molecular electronic devices. Supermolecules are highly promising candidates for molecular devices because of their abundant structures and easy functionalization. Herein, we report an efficient strategy to enhance charge transport through pillar[5]arene self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) by introducing cationic guests. The current density of pillar[5]arene SAMs can be raised up to about 2.1 orders of magnitude by inserting cationic molecules into the cavity of pillar[5]arenes in SAMs. Importantly, we have also observed a positive correlation between the charge transport of pillar[5]arene-based complex SAMs and the binding affinities of the pillar[5]arene-based complexation. Such an enhancement of charge transport is attributed to the efficient host-guest interactions that stabilize the supramolecular complexes and lower the energy gaps for charge transport. This work provides a predictive pattern for the regulation of intermolecular charge transport in guiding the design of next generation switches and functional sensors in supramolecular electronics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaobing Li
- College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, 299 Bayi Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
| | - Siyuan Zhou
- The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, 299 Bayi Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
| | - Qi Zhao
- The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, 299 Bayi Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
| | - Yi Chen
- The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, 299 Bayi Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
| | - Pan Qi
- College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, 299 Bayi Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
| | - Yongkang Zhang
- College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, 299 Bayi Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
| | - Lu Wang
- The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, 299 Bayi Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
| | - Cunlan Guo
- College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, 299 Bayi Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
| | - Shigui Chen
- The Institute for Advanced Studies, Wuhan University, 299 Bayi Road, Wuhan, Hubei, 430072, China
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