| 1. |
- Emanuelsson, Rikard, et al.
(författare)
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Configuration- and Conformation-Dependent Electronic-Structure Variations in 1,4-Disubstituted Cyclohexanes Enabled by a Carbon-to-Silicon Exchange
- 2014
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Ingår i: Chemistry - A European Journal. - : Wiley. - 0947-6539 .- 1521-3765. ; 20:30, s. 9304-9311
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cyclohexane, with its well-defined conformers, could be an ideal force-controlled molecular switch if it were to display substantial differences in electronic and optical properties between its conformers. We utilize sigma conjugation in heavier analogues of cyclohexanes (i.e. cyclohexasilanes) and show that 1,4-disubstituted cyclohexasilanes display configuration-and conformation-dependent variations in these properties. Cis- and trans-1,4-bis(trimethylsilylethynyl)-cyclohexasilanes display a 0.11 V difference in their oxidation potentials (computed 0.11 V) and a 0.34 eV difference in their lowest UV absorption (computed difference between first excitations 0.07 eV). This is in stark contrast to differences in the corresponding properties of analogous all-carbon cyclohexanes (computed 0.02 V and 0.03 eV, respectively). Moreover, the two chair conformers of the cyclohexasilane trans isomer display large differences in electronic-structure-related properties. This enables computational design of a mechanically force-controlled conductance switch with a calculated single-molecule ON/OFF ratio of 213 at zero-bias voltage.
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| 2. |
- Emanuelsson, Rikard, et al.
(författare)
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In Search of Flexible Molecular Wires with Near Conformer-Independent Conjugation and Conductance : A Computational Study
- 2014
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Ingår i: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 118:11, s. 5637-5649
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Oligomers of 1,4-disila/germa/stannacyclohexa-2,5-dienes as well as all-carbon 1,4-cyclohexadienes connected via E-E single bonds (E = C, Si, Ge, or Sn) were studied through quantum chemical calculations in an effort to identify conformationally flexible molecular wires that act as molecular "electrical cords" hang conformer-independent conjugative and conductive properties. Our oligomers display neutral hyperconjugative interactions (sigma/pi-conjugation) between adjacent sigma(E-E) and pi(C=C) bond orbitals, and these interactions do not change with conformation. The energies and spatial distributions of the highest occupied molecular orbitals of methyl-, silyl-, and trimethylsilyl (TMS)-substituted 1,4-disilacyclohexa-2,5-diene dimers, and stable conformers of trimers and tetramers, remain rather constant upon Si-Si bond rotation. Yet, steric congestion may be a concern in some of the oligomer types. The calculated conductances for the Si-containing tetramers are similar to that of a sigma-conjugated linear all-anti oligosilane (a hexadecasilane) with equally many bonds in the conjugated paths. Moreover, the Me-substituted 1,4-disilacyclohexadiene tetramer has modest conductance fluctuations with Si-Si bond rotations when the electrode-electrode distance is locked (variation by factor similar to 30), while the fluctuations under similar conditions are larger for the analogous TMS-substituted tetramer. When the electrode-electrode distance is changed several oligomers display small conductance variations within certain distance intervals, e.g., the mean conductance of TMS-substituted 1,4-disilacyclohexa-2,5-diene tetramer is almost unchanged over 9 A of electrode-electrode distances.
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| 3. |
- Jafri, Hassan M., et al.
(författare)
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Identification of vibrational signatures from short chains of interlinked molecule-nanoparticle junctions obtained by inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy
- 2013
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Ingår i: Nanoscale. - 2040-3364 .- 2040-3372. ; 5:11, s. 4673-4677
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Short chains containing a series of metal- molecule-nanoparticle nanojunctions are a nano-materials system with the potential to give electrical signatures close to those from single molecule experiments while enabling to build portable devices on a chip. Inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy (IETS) measurements provide one of the most characteristic electrical signals of single and few molecules. In interlinked molecule-nanoparticle (NP) chains containing of typically 5-7 molecules in a chain, the spectrum is expected to be a superposition of the vibrational signature of individual molecules. We have established a stable and reproducible molecule-AuNP multi-junction by placing few 1,8-octanedithiol (ODT) molecules into a versatile and portable nanoparticle-nanoelectrode platform and measured for the first time vibrational molecular signatures complex and coupled few-molecule-NP junctions. From quantum transport calculations, we model the IETS spectra and identify vibrational modes as well as the number of molecules contributing to the electron transport in the measured spectra.
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| 4. |
- Jafri, S. Hassan M., et al.
(författare)
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Nano-fabrication of molecular electronic junctions by targeted modification of metal-molecule bonds
- 2015
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Publishing Group. - 2045-2322. ; 5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Reproducibility, stability and the coupling between electrical and molecular properties are central challenges in the field of molecular electronics. The field not only needs devices that fulfill these criteria but they also need to be up-scalable to application size. In this work, few-molecule based electronics devices with reproducible electrical characteristics are demonstrated. Our previously reported 5 nm gold nanoparticles (AuNP) coated with omega-triphenylmethyl (trityl) protected 1,8-octanedithiol molecules are trapped in between sub-20 nm gap spacing gold nanoelectrodes forming AuNP-molecule network. When the trityl groups are removed, reproducible devices and stable Au-thiol junctions are established on both ends of the alkane segment. The resistance of more than 50 devices is reduced by orders of magnitude as well as a reduction of the spread in the resistance histogram is observed. By density functional theory calculations the orders of magnitude decrease in resistance can be explained and supported by TEM observations thus indicating that the resistance changes and strongly improved resistance spread are related to the establishment of reproducible and stable metal-molecule bonds. The same experimental sequence is carried out using 1,6-hexanedithiol functionalized AuNPs. The average resistances as a function of molecular length, demonstrated herein, are comparable to the one found in single molecule devices.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Löfås, Henrik, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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A computational study of potential molecular switches that exploit Baird's rule on excited-state aromaticity and antiaromaticity
- 2014
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Ingår i: Faraday discussions. - 1359-6640 .- 1364-5498. ; 174, s. 105-124
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- A series of tentative single-molecule conductance switches which could be triggered by light were examined by computational means using density functional theory (DFT) with non-equilibrium Green's functions (NEGF). The switches exploit the reversal in electron counting rules for aromaticity and antiaromaticity upon excitation from the electronic ground state (S0) to the lowest [small pi][small pi]* excited singlet and triplet states (S1 or T1), as described by Huckel's and Baird's rules, respectively. Four different switches and one antifuse were designed which rely on various photoreactions that either lead from the OFF to the ON states (switches 1, 2 and 4, and antifuse 5) or from the ON to the OFF state (switch 3). The highest and lowest ideal calculated switching ratios are 1175 and 5, respectively, observed for switches 1 and 4. Increased thermal stability of the 1-ON isomer is achieved by benzannulation (switch 1B-OFF/ON). The effects of constrained electrode-electrode distances on activation energies for thermal hydrogen back-transfer from 1-ON to 1-OFF and the relative energies of 1-ON and 1-OFF at constrained geometries were also studied. The switching ratio is strongly distance-dependent as revealed for 1B-ON/OFF where it equals 711 and 148 when the ON and OFF isomers are calculated in electrode gaps with distances confined to either that of the OFF isomer or to that of the ON isomer, respectively.
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| 8. |
- Löfås, Henrik, et al.
(författare)
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Conductance through Carbosilane Cage Compounds : A Computational Investigation
- 2013
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Ingår i: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 117:42, s. 21692-21699
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Silicon is still the dominating material in microelectronics, yet primarily conjugated hydrocarbons are investigated in the field of single-molecule electronics even though linear oligosilanes are a-conjugated. A drawback with the latter is their high conformational flexibility which strongly affects conductance. Here we report on a first principles density functional theory investigation of a series of rigid [2.2.2]bicyclic carbosilanes with 3, 2, 1, or 0 disilanylene bridges, providing all-silicon paths for charge transport. It is explored if these paths can be seen as independent and equivalent current paths acting as parallel resistors. For high conductance through the carbosilanes they need to be anchored to the gold electrodes via groups that are matched with the a-conjugated paths of the oligosilane cage segment, and we find that silyl (SiH3) groups are better matched than thiophenol groups. Even for the carbosilane with three disilanylene bridges we find that the most transmitting conductance channel is not equally distributed on the three parallel bridges. In addition, there is significant communication between the various pathways, which results in destructive interference lowering the conductance. Taken together, the different disilanylene bridges in the cage compounds do not act as parallel resistors.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Löfås, Henrik, et al.
(författare)
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New class of molecular conductance switches based on the [1,3]-silyl migration from silanes to silenes
- 2013
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Ingår i: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 117:21, s. 10909-10918
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- On the basis of first-principles density functional theory calculations, we propose a new molecular photoswitch which exploits a photochemical [1,3]-silyl(germyl) shift leading from a silane to a silene (a Si=C double bonded compound). The silanes investigated herein act as the OFF state, with tetrahedral saturated silicon atoms disrupting the conjugation through the molecules. The silenes, on the other hand, have conjugated paths spanning over the complete molecules and thus act as the ON state. We calculate ON/OFF conductance ratios in the range of 10-50 at a voltage of +1 V. In the low bias regime, the ON/OFF ratio increases to a range of 200-1150. The reverse reaction could be triggered thermally or photolytically, with the silene being slightly higher in relative energy than the silane. The calculated activation barriers for the thermal back-rearrangement of the migrating group can be tuned and are in the range 108-171 kJ/mol for the switches examined herein. The first-principles calculations together with a simple one-level model show that the high ON/OFF ratio in the molecule assembled in a solid state device is due to changes in the energy position of the frontier molecular orbitals compared to the Fermi energy of the electrodes, in combination with an increased effective coupling between the molecule and the electrodes for the ON state.
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