Enhancing the Pressure-Sensitive Electrical Conductance of Self-Assembled Monolayers.

ABSTRACT: The inherent large HOMO-LUMO gap of alkyl thiol (CnS) self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) has limited their application in molecular electronics. This work demonstrates significant enhancement of mechano-electrical sensitivity in CnS SAMs by external compression, achieving a gauge factor (GF) of approximately 10 for C10S SAMs. This GF surpasses values reported for conjugated wires and DNA strands, highlighting the potential of CnS SAMs in mechanosensitive devices. Conductive atomic force microscopy (cAFM) investigations reveal a strong dependence of GF on the alkyl chain length in probe/CnS/Au junctions. This dependence arises from the combined influence of molecular tilting and probe penetration, facilitated by the low Young's modulus of alkyl chains. Theoretical simulations corroborate thes

SUBMITTER: Wang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11622190 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature