Scanning Tunneling Microscopy based Breaking Junction method (STM-BJ) developed in 2003 provides reliable, reproducible generation and measurement of electronic properties of molecular circuits. Encouraged by the great performance of polycarbazole in electronic devices, we plan to study a series of shorter oligocarbazoles to establish clear structure-property relationships for this electronically important material. As a starting point, we synthesized three carbazole oligomers---monomer, dimer and trimer, by standard wet organic chemistry. Each molecule is terminated with two methyl sulfides as the gold atom linkers, with an octyl chain on nitrogen atoms. Investigation of the impact of molecular length on electron transport through carbazole backbone via STM-BJ technology is currently underway. An exponential decay of conductance from monomer to trimer as the molecular length extends is expected. We’re also exploring the molecular gating effect by placing different organic functional groups on the nitrogen atom in each carbazole unit.

Oligocarbazole molecular wires: Synthesis and single-molecule conductance

256th National Meeting (2018)

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