Regulating enol-keto tautomerism at the single-molecule level with a confined optical field.

ABSTRACT: The keto-enol tautomerism, involving a reversible isomerization of the molecule, plays a critical role in organic synthesis, biological activity, and molecular-scale charge transport. It is therefore essential to manipulate the process of keto-enol tautomerism. Unlike typical ketones, β-diketones exist dominantly in the enol form and it is a great challenge to realize enol-keto tautomerism due to the formation of intramolecular hydrogen bonds in the enol form. Here, via in situ monitoring of the conductance evolution of thousands of single-molecule junctions, we demonstrated that the enol → keto transformation can be significantly promoted by confined ultraviolet (UV) irradiation at an extremely low intensity (1‰ of sunshine) employing antenna electrodes. Our study reveals that the

SUBMITTER: Adijiang A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12412053 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature