Themed collection Spotlight Collection: Inorganic Molecular Electronics

Guest Editors Cláudio N. Verani and Paul J. Low introduce the Spotlight Collection, “Inorganic Molecular Electronics”.

The state-of-the-art of metallorganic-based molecular rectification is reviewed with an emphasis on asymmetric five-coordinate Fe^III-containing surfactants in electrode|LB film|electrode assemblies.

This Perspective highlights relationships between chemical features of metal bis(acetylide) complexes and their electrical response in a molecular junction.

This study emphasizes recent advances in the designing of coordination polymers for photo-responsive electronic device applications in regard to crystal engineering aspects and structure–property relationship.

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) represents a very powerful tool to correlate the charge transport behaviours of porphyrins and phthalocyanines with ultrahigh resolution imaging.

This frontier article highlights the design strategy and controlling factors that affect the electrical conductivity of 1D coordination polymers.

Using ligand-protected nanoparticles to create low-dimensional nanostructures on the surfaces represents a facile and efficient approach to fabricate nanostructured surfaces.

A new family of phosphindole fused ladder-type heteroacenes with a pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyrrole core were synthesized and characterized, which show good luminescence efficiency, high thermostability and tunable conductance.

Binding site electron density in σ-type molecular orbitals is the decisive factor in the in situ assembly of quasi-1D coordination chains using triazole (Tr) isomer ligands in molecular junctions.

A protecting-group strategy can be used to synthesise symmetrical, asymmetrical and multi-ferrocenyl molecular wires, terminated with thioacetates – rare molecules with significant potential in the fabrication of molecular nanoelectronics.

2D structure of bismuth iodide brakes into fragments of different dimensionality and geometry upon reaction with substituted pyridinium iodides. The main factor determining the structure of the product is dipole moment of pyridinium cation.

Nitro groups intended to modulate the energy of Frontier molecular orbitals were installed onto terpyridine- and phenanthroline-based Ru^II metallosurfactants aiming to match the Fermi levels of electrodes for charge transport in Au|LB|Au junctions.

A new ligand comprising directly-connected disulfide-based anchors provides access to air-stable metal bis(terpyridine) complexes for the functionalization of metal surfaces.

A ruthenium-containing metallosurfactant [Ru(terpy-X)(SQ)Cl]PF₆ displays extensive orbital mixing, and allows a low-lying LUMO primarily associated with the SQ ligand to engage in directional electron transport in Au|LB 1|Au junctions.

This computational study presents the molecular conduction properties of polyoxovanadates V₆O₁₉ (Lindqvist-type) and V₁₈O₄₂, as possible successors of the materials currently in use in complementary metal–oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology.

Infra-red spectroelectrochemical studies of [{Cp′(CO)_xM′}(μ-CCC₆H₄CC){M(PP)Cp′}]ⁿ⁺ [n = 0, 1] illustrate limited ground-state interactions in these donor–acceptor compounds and the localised nature of the one-electron redox processes.

This work explores the possibility of controlling the fluorescence of porphyrins via oxidation of a ruthenium acetylide unit. The modulation depends on the nature of the porphyrin unit(s).

This surfactant, as a Langmuir–Blodgett monolayer on Au, has electrical rectification ratios from 25 to 300 at 1 Volt (the coordinating Ns are the electron donors, Fe(III) is the electron acceptor). The red arrow shows the direction of preferred electron current.