Utilizing Noncovalent Conformational Locks to Create Through-Space Charge Transport
Zhiye Wang, Ming‐Zhu Huang, Jianqiao Dong, Xu Wang, Yunchuan Li, Mingjun Sun, Shuai Chang
Abstract
Creating through-space electron transport (ET) channels in the molecular backbone has been rarely explored in molecular electronics. Here, we demonstrated that through-space channels could be readily created by substituting the H atom of the central benzene in a starting molecule 1,4-dithiophene-benzen (DT-B) with F, which forms an interaction with the thiophene S and gives rise to the F–S type noncovalent conformational locks (NCLs). Single-molecule conductance investigation showed the molecular conductance was increasingly larger with more F substituents. A theoretical study revealed that NCLs play a major role in enhancing the ET rates, which not only led to better π-conjugation but also created additional through-space transport channels.