Issue 7, 2021

Room temperature conductance switching in a molecular iron(iii) spin crossover junction

Abstract

Herein, we report the first room temperature switchable Fe(III) molecular spin crossover (SCO) tunnel junction. The junction is constructed from [FeIII(qsal-I)2]NTf2 (qsal-I = 4-iodo-2-[(8-quinolylimino)methyl]phenolate) molecules self-assembled on graphene surfaces with conductance switching of one order of magnitude associated with the high and low spin states of the SCO complex. Normalized conductance analysis of the current–voltage characteristics as a function of temperature reveals that charge transport across the SCO molecule is dominated by coherent tunnelling. Temperature-dependent X-ray absorption spectroscopy and density functional theory confirm the SCO complex retains its SCO functionality on the surface implying that van der Waals molecule—electrode interfaces provide a good trade-off between junction stability while retaining SCO switching capability. These results provide new insights and may aid in the design of other types of molecular devices based on SCO compounds.

Graphical abstract: Room temperature conductance switching in a molecular iron(iii) spin crossover junction

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
19 Aug. 2020
Accepted
09 Nov. 2020
First published
10 Nov. 2020
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., 2021,12, 2381-2388

Room temperature conductance switching in a molecular iron(III) spin crossover junction

S. K. Karuppannan, A. Martín-Rodríguez, E. Ruiz, P. Harding, D. J. Harding, X. Yu, A. Tadich, B. Cowie, D. Qi and C. A. Nijhuis, Chem. Sci., 2021, 12, 2381 DOI: 10.1039/D0SC04555A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, 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 commercial 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.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements