Utilizing Noncovalent Conformational Locks to Create Through- Space Charge Transport

作者：Li, Yunchuan^*; Sun, Mingjun^*; Chang, Shuai^*; Wang, Zhiye; Huang, Mingzhu; Dong, Jianqiao; Wang, Xu

来源：Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2023, 127(5): 2518-2523.

DOI：10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c06683

• CONDUCTANCE
• SEMICONDUCTORS
• ADSORPTION
• BIPHENYL
• DESIGN

Creating through-space electron transport (ET) channels in the molecular backbone has been rarely explored in molecular electronics. Here, we demonstrated that through-space channels could be readily created by substituting the H atom of the central benzene in a starting molecule 1,4-dithiophene-benzen (DT-B) with F, which forms an interaction with the thiophene S and gives rise to the F-S type noncovalent conformational locks (NCLs). Single-molecule conductance investigation showed the molecular conductance was increasingly larger with more F substituents. A theoretical study revealed that NCLs play a major role in enhancing the ET rates, which not only led to better pi-conjugation but also created additional through-space transport channels.