• 文献标题:   Electrochemical gating for single-molecule electronics with hybrid Au|graphene contacts
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   TAO SH, ZHANG Q, VEZZOLI A, ZHAO CZ, ZHAO C, HIGGINS SJ, SMOGUNOV A, DAPPE YJ, NICHOLS RJ, YANG L
  • 作者关键词:  
  • 出版物名称:   PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY CHEMICAL PHYSICS
  • ISSN:   1463-9076 EI 1463-9084
  • 通讯作者地址:  
  • 被引频次:   2
  • DOI:   10.1039/d1cp05486d EA FEB 2022
  • 出版年:   2022

▎ 摘  要

The single-molecular conductance of a redox active viologen molecular bridge between Au|graphene electrodes has been studied in an electrochemical gating configuration in an ionic liquid medium. A clear "off-on-off" conductance switching behaviour has been achieved through gating of the redox state when the electrochemical potential is swept. The Au|viologen|graphene junctions show single-molecule conductance maxima centred close to the equilibrium redox potentials for both reduction steps. The peak conductance of Au|viologen|graphene junctions during the first reduction is significantly higher than that of previously measured Au|viologen|Au junctions. This shows that even though the central viologen moiety is not directly linked to the enclosing electrodes, substituting one gold contact for a graphene one nevertheless has a significant impact on junction conductance values. The experimental data was compared against two theoretical models, namely a phase coherent tunnelling and an incoherent "hopping" model. The former is a simple gating monoelectronic model within density functional theory (DFT) which discloses the charge state evolution of the molecule with electrode potential. The latter model is the collective Kuznetsov Ulstrup model for 2-step sequential charge transport through the redox centre in the adiabatic limit. The comparison of both models to the experimental data is discussed for the first time. This work opens perspectives for graphene-based molecular transistors with more effective gating and fundamental understanding of electrochemical electron transfer at the single molecular level.