Artigo Acesso aberto Revisado por pares

Synthesis and Single-Molecule Conductances of Neutral and Cationic Indenofluorene-Extended Tetrathiafulvalenes: Kondo Effect Molecules

2016; American Chemical Society; Volume: 81; Issue: 18 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1021/acs.joc.6b01579

ISSN

1520-6904

Autores

Mads Mansø, Max Koole, Maarten Mulder, Ignacio José Olavarría-Contreras, Cecilie Lindholm Andersen, Martyn Jevric, Søren Lindbæk Broman, Anders Kadziola, Ole Hammerich, Herre S. J. van der Zant, Mogens Brøndsted Nielsen,

Tópico(s)

Quantum and electron transport phenomena

Resumo

Development of molecules that can switch between redox states with paired and unpaired electrons is important for molecular electronics and spintronics. In this work, a selection of redox-active indenofluorene-extended tetrathiafulvalenes (IF-TTFs) with thioacetate end groups was prepared from a readily obtainable dibromo-functionalized IF-TTF building block using palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions, such as the Suzuki reaction. The end groups served as electrode anchoring groups for single-molecule conductance studies, and the molecules were subjected to mechanically controlled break-junction measurements with gold contacts and to low-bias charge transport measurements in gated three-terminal electromigration junctions. The neutral molecules showed clear conductance signatures, and somewhat surprisingly, we found that a meta-meta anchoring configuration gave a higher conductance than a para-meta configuration. We explain this behavior by "through-space" coupling between the gold electrode and the phenyl on which the anchoring group is attached. Upon charging the molecule in a gated junction, we found reproducibly a Kondo effect (zero-bias conductance) attributed to a net spin. Ready generation of radical cations was supported by cyclic voltammetry measurements, revealing stepwise formation of radical cation and dication species in solution. The first oxidation event was accompanied by association reactions as the appearance of the first oxidation peak was strongly concentration dependent.

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