Issue 20, 2022

Charge transport through single-molecule bilayer-graphene junctions with atomic thickness

Abstract

The van der Waals interactions (vdW) between π-conjugated molecules offer new opportunities for fabricating heterojunction-based devices and investigating charge transport in heterojunctions with atomic thickness. In this work, we fabricate sandwiched single-molecule bilayer-graphene junctions via vdW interactions and characterize their electrical transport properties by employing the cross-plane break junction (XPBJ) technique. The experimental results show that the cross-plane charge transport through single-molecule junctions is determined by the size and layer number of molecular graphene in these junctions. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the charge transport through molecular graphene in these molecular junctions is sensitive to the angles between the graphene flake and peripheral mesityl groups, and those rotated groups can be used to tune the electrical conductance. This study provides new insight into cross-plane charge transport in atomically thin junctions and highlights the role of through-space interactions in vdW heterojunctions at the molecular scale.

Graphical abstract: Charge transport through single-molecule bilayer-graphene junctions with atomic thickness

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
17 Dec 2021
Accepted
29 Mar 2022
First published
30 Mar 2022
This article is Open Access

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

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 5854-5859

Charge transport through single-molecule bilayer-graphene junctions with atomic thickness

S. Zhao, Z. Deng, S. Albalawi, Q. Wu, L. Chen, H. Zhang, X. Zhao, H. Hou, S. Hou, G. Dong, Y. Yang, J. Shi, C. J. Lambert, Y. Tan and W. Hong, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 5854 DOI: 10.1039/D1SC07024J

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