Issue 11, 2017

Protonation tuning of quantum interference in azulene-type single-molecule junctions

Abstract

The protonation of azulene derivatives with quantum interference effects is studied by the conductance measurements of single-molecule junctions. Three azulene derivatives with different connectivities are synthesized and reacted with trifluoroacetic acid to form the protonated states. It is found that the protonated azulene molecular junctions produce more than one order of magnitude higher conductance than the neutral states, while the molecules with destructive interference show more significant changes. These experimental observations are supported by our recently-developed parameter free theory of connectivity, which suggests that the largest conductance change occurs when destructive interference near the Fermi energy in the neutral state is alleviated by protonation.

Graphical abstract: Protonation tuning of quantum interference in azulene-type single-molecule junctions

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
05 Mar 2017
Accepted
07 Sep 2017
First published
07 Sep 2017
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2017,8, 7505-7509

Protonation tuning of quantum interference in azulene-type single-molecule junctions

G. Yang, S. Sangtarash, Z. Liu, X. Li, H. Sadeghi, Z. Tan, R. Li, J. Zheng, X. Dong, J. Liu, Y. Yang, J. Shi, Z. Xiao, G. Zhang, C. Lambert, W. Hong and D. Zhang, Chem. Sci., 2017, 8, 7505 DOI: 10.1039/C7SC01014A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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