title: Stereoelectronic Effect-Induced Conductance Switching in Aromatic Chain Single-Molecule Junctions.
abstract: Biphenyl, as the elementary unit of organic functional materials, has been widely used in electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, over decades little has been fundamentally understood regarding how the intramolecular conformation of biphenyl dynamically affects its transport properties at the single-molecule level. Here, we establish the stereoelectronic effect of biphenyl on its electrical conductance based on the platform of graphene-molecule single-molecule junctions, where a specifically designed hexaphenyl aromatic chain molecule is covalently sandwiched between nanogapped graphene point contacts to create stable single-molecule junctions. Both theoretical and temperature-dependent experimental results consistently demonstrate that phenyl twisting in the aromatic chain molecule produces different microstates with different degrees of conjugation, thus leading to stochastic switching between high- and low-conductance states. These investigations offer new molecular design insights into building functional single-molecule electrical devices.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Na
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Xin
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.|Department of Applied Physics, University of Tokyo , Hongo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan.
authors.forename: Jinying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Chuancheng
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1513-8497
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Zitong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Xisha
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Chenmin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Mingliang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Shuopei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Department of Electronics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Hantao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Guanxin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Zhirong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Guangyu
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Department of Electronics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Jianhui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, CAS Key Laboratory of Organic Solids, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Deqing
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5709-6088
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.|Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University , Beijing 100871, China.
authors.forename: Xuefeng
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5723-8528
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Guo
keywords: Single molecule junction; biphenyl; stereoelectronic effect; switch