Issue 9, 1999

The unimolecular rectifier: unimolecular electronic devices are coming …

Abstract

Unimolecular electronic devices use the energy levels, or conformations, of one molecule or a very few molecules, and are contacted electrically from the outside. When made practical, these devices, the ‘advanced guard’ of unimolecular electronics, should leapfrog below the 50 nm limit of conventional inorganic microelectronics. Aviram and Ratner proposed in 1974 rectification of electrical current through a single molecule D-σ-A, 1, where D=good one-electron donor, σ=covalent, saturated ‘sigma’ bridge, A=good one-electron acceptor, because, from the undissociated ground state D 0 -σ-A 0 , the first zwitterionic excited state D + -σ-A is accessible under electrical bias. Many such D-σ-A molecules were prepared. We found unimolecular rectification in a molecule, γ-hexadecylquinolinium tricyanoquinomethanide, 2, in which the ground state is zwitterionic: D + -π-A , while the first excited state is undissociated: D 0 -π-A 0 .

Article information

Article type
Paper

J. Mater. Chem., 1999,9, 2027-2036

The unimolecular rectifier: unimolecular electronic devices are coming …

R. M. Metzger, J. Mater. Chem., 1999, 9, 2027 DOI: 10.1039/A902863C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Spotlight

Advertisements