Synthesis and charge transport property study of oligo(phenyleneethynylene)s
Wendy Fan*, a, Geetha R. Dholakiaa, Jessica Koehneb, Chongwu Zhouc, M. Meyyappanb, and Jie Hana
aEloret Corporation,
Moffett Field, CA 94035 USA
bNASA Ames Research Center
cUniversity of Southern California
This is an abstract
for a presentation given at the
10th
Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology
 One of the goals in molecular-scale electronics is to understand the influence of structural characteristics of a molecule on its electronic conduction behavior (1). Studies (2) by Reed and Tour have shown that oligo(phenyleneethynylene)s containing nitro groups exhibit NDR (negative differential resistance) effect and thus have potential applications as electronic switching and memory devices. The physical mechanism is not well understood. It was hypothesized that either the redox properties (3) or the conformational change of the molecules under external electric field could be responsible (4). To isolate the effect of redox properties from that of conformational change in studying electron transport property, we prepared two oligo(phenyleneethynylene) molecules (1 and 2, Figure) that are similar in conformation but different in electron density distribution. To further examine the charge effect, a third analog, the positively charged molecule 3, was prepared from 2 by methylating the nitrogen atom on the pyridine ring. These molecules were synthesized by repetitive palladium-catalyzed Sonagashira coupling reaction of the respective benzene and pyridine building blocks. The rod-like structures and the terminal thiol groups allowed the molecules to form self-assembled monolayers (SAM) on gold electrodes. The electron transport property was studied by I/V characterization and the density of states by scanning tunneling microscopy.
References:
- Tour, J. Chem. Rev., 96, 537 (1996)
- Chen, J.,Reed, M.A., Rawlett, A.M. and Tour, J.M. Science, 286, 1550 (1999).
- Chen, J.,Wang, W., Reed, M.A., Rawlett, A.M., Price, D.W. and Tour J.M. Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 1224 (2000)
- Donhauser, Z. J., Mantooth, B.A., Kelly, K.F., Bumm, L.A., Monnell, J. D.,Stapleton, J.J.,Price Jr., D.W., Rawlett, A.M., Allara, D.L., Tour J.M. and Weiss, P.S. Science, 292, 2303 (2001).
*Corresponding Address:
Wendy Fan
Eloret Corporation
MS 229-01, Moffett Field, CA 94035 USA
Phone: 650-604-2122 Fax: 650-604-5244
Email: wfan@mail.arc.nasa.gov
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