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Quantum interference and heteroaromaticity of para- and meta-linked bridged biphenyl units in single molecular conductance measurements

Gantenbein, M.; Wang, L.; Al-jobory, A.A.; Ismael, A.K.; Lambert, C.J.; Hong, W.; Bryce, M.R.

Quantum interference and heteroaromaticity of para- and meta-linked bridged biphenyl units in single molecular conductance measurements Thumbnail


Authors

M. Gantenbein

L. Wang

A.A. Al-jobory

A.K. Ismael

C.J. Lambert

W. Hong



Abstract

Is there a correlation between the (hetero)aromaticity of the core of a molecule and its conductance in a single molecular junction? To address this question, which is of fundamental interest in molecular electronics, oligo(arylene-ethynylene) (OAE) molecular wires have been synthesized with core units comprising dibenzothiophene, carbazole, dibenzofuran and fluorene. The biphenyl core has been studied for comparison. Two isomeric series have been obtained with 4-ethynylpyridine units linked to the core either at para-para positions (para series 1–5) or meta-meta positions (meta series 6–10). A combined experimental and computational study, using mechanically controlled break junction measurements and density functional theory calculations, demonstrates consistently higher conductance in the para series compared to the meta series: this is in agreement with increased conjugation of the π–system in the para series. Within the para series conductance increases in the order of decreasing heteroaromaticity (dibenzothiophene < carbazole < dibenzofuran). However, the sequence is very different in the meta series, where dibenzothiophene ≈ dibenzofuran < carbazole. Excellent agreement between theoretical and experimental conductance values is obtained. Our study establishes that both quantum interference and heteroaromaticity in the molecular core units play important and inter-related roles in determining the conductance of single molecular junctions.

Citation

Gantenbein, M., Wang, L., Al-jobory, A., Ismael, A., Lambert, C., Hong, W., & Bryce, M. (2017). Quantum interference and heteroaromaticity of para- and meta-linked bridged biphenyl units in single molecular conductance measurements. Scientific Reports, 7, Article 1794. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01903-0

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 5, 2017
Online Publication Date May 11, 2017
Publication Date May 11, 2017
Deposit Date Apr 24, 2017
Publicly Available Date Apr 24, 2017
Journal Scientific Reports
Publisher Nature Research
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 7
Article Number 1794
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01903-0

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.






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