Stable anchoring chemistry for room temperature charge transport through graphite-molecule contacts.

ABSTRACT: An open challenge for single-molecule electronics is to find stable contacts at room temperature with a well-defined conductance. Common coinage metal electrodes pose fabrication and operational problems due to the high mobility of the surface atoms. We demonstrate how molecules covalently grafted onto mechanically robust graphite/graphene substrates overcome these limitations. To this aim, we explore the effect of the anchoring group chemistry on the charge transport properties of graphite-molecule contacts by means of the scanning tunneling microscopy break-junction technique and ab initio simulations. Molecules adsorbed on graphite only via van der Waals interactions have a conductance that decreases exponentially upon stretching the junctions, whereas the molecules bonded covalently to

SUBMITTER: Rudnev AV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5466367 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature