分子陀螺的设计、合成与组装

近来,科学家设计和合成了系列分子水平的陀螺。类似于儿童的玩具陀螺仪,这种分子陀螺由一个转子、一个定子框架和连接定子和转子的轴组成。定子框架通过自身的刚性结构为中心转子的转动提供足够的内在自由度,得以对内部的转子实施保护。并使得分子陀螺成为一个理想的分子转子。当转子上有偶极距时,则可能在外来电、磁、光的刺激下进行定向转动,成为分子马达。化学家们通过X射线晶体衍射技术、动态核磁技术、理论计算化学、热力学分析等方法表征了分子陀螺的各种特征,并积极探索其潜在的应用价值。本文着重介绍分子陀螺,以及超分子陀螺仪的发展历史以及研究进展。     

从分子构造到分子构型和分子构象（中）

我们从(上)文看到,化学家们最初认为物质的性质只决定于物质的分子组成,后来逐渐认识到物质的性质除决定于物质的分子组成外,还决定于分子构造.     

从分子构造到分子构型和分子构象（上）

分子构造(constitution)是指分子中原子相互联结的方式和次序,过去长期以来称为分子结构((structure),根据国际纯粹和应用化学联合会的建议,改为“构造”。“结构”一词应用在广泛的范围,例如物质结构、原子的电子结构等等。     

从分子构造到分子构型和分子构象（下）

范特霍夫和列贝尔分别各自提出碳原子的四个价键指向一个正四面体的四个顶点概念确立后,1885年德国化学家拜尔(Baeyer,Adolphvon 1835-1917)发表价键的张力学说。他根据碳原子四个价键的正四面体模型,任何两个价键之间的正常角度应当是109o28',如图I所示。     

卟啉超分子化合物在分子器件中的应用

分子电子器件已成为近年来的一个研究热点，卟啉类化合物因为光敏性好、性能稳定、易于修饰等优点成为分子器件研究的理想模型化合物。本文着重介绍了它在分子器件中的最新应用进展。     

基于C=O…HN分子间氢键的超分子液晶研究进展

基于C=O…HN的分子间氢键能够自组装形成具有精确分子排列和很好稳定性的有序结构,在设计构造液晶功能材料方面具有重要的不可替代的地位.分子形状是设计小分子热致液晶的一个主要考虑因素,它对液晶态的结构有至关重要的影响.以分子形状与液晶态相互关系为主线,重点介绍了目前文献报道的基于C=O…HN分子间氢键的盘状和楔形分子形成液晶的研究进展,以期为新型液晶材料的分子设计提供一些借鉴.     

分子调控的概念及其意义

在分子识别的基础之上提出了分子调控的新概念，指出分子调控是外界因素对分子某些性质的指令性干预，是超分子体系所持有的功能，通过这种调控作用，可以有意识、有目的地控制分子的行为，并列举若干实例加以说明。     

分子识别在分析化学中的应用

本文概述了分子模板理论的产生和发展，总结了分子模板技术在分析化学领域中的应用和发展趋势，同时对分子印渍技术的理论进行概述，并指出分子印渍技术在分析化学领域中的应用和发展情况，阐述了分子模板和分子印渍技在分子识别分析方面的应用前景，其将为各种物质的超微量分析提供更加讯捷，准确，方便的分析方法。     

药物头孢氨苄分子模板聚合物水中结合性质的研究

采用分子模板技术合成了以头孢氨苄为模板分子以三氟甲基丙烯酸和４－乙烯基吡啶同时为功能单体的分子模板聚合物。将得到的棒状聚合物研磨过筛后,运用平衡结合实验研究了头孢氨苄分子模板聚合物的结合性质,Ｓｃａｔｃｈａｒｄ分析表明,在所研究的浓度范围内,在聚合物中形成了两类不同的结合位点。头孢氨苄分子模板聚合物与其化学组成相同的非模板聚合物相比,有很高的结合容量。底物选择性实验表明,与其它结构相似的药物相比,     

分子逻辑器件研究进展

分子器件具有尺寸小、设计合成可控、存储量大、反应速度快、人工智能等诸多优点,是当今化学、物理和材料等领域研究最为重要的一个交叉领域.综述了近些年来分子逻辑器件领域的研究进展.介绍了各种类型的分子逻辑门、半(加)减法器、分子逻辑线路以及DNA分子和固态分子计算.最后提出了分子器件存在的问题并展望了其应用前景.     

氮掺杂石墨烯的p型场效应及其精细调控

Functionalized graphene has attracted significant interest over the past decade due to its unique physical properties and potential applications. Graphene oxide (GO), a readily scaled-up product, is a basic material for further functionalization. Using reductive processes, highly conductive reduced graphene oxide (RGO) can be obtained, which exhibits electrical and optical properties analogous to those of graphene. Moreover, due to the presence of oxygen-containing functional groups, its chemical reactivity and electronic properties can be easily tailored by chemical doping with nitrogen. However, developing strategies for doping graphene is challenging and the fundamental roles of the doping atom configuration and its environment on the resulting properties of graphene remain poorly understood. These properties are important for electrical and catalytic applications of graphene. Thus, synthesizing specific configurations of nitrogen-doped graphene and consequently investigating the electrical and catalytic properties of the product is imperative. Herein, we demonstrate an approach that allows for successful production of nitrogen-functionalized RGO using Schiff base condensation between the amino groups in an o-aryl diamine compound and the carbonyl groups in GO. Three typical nitrogen-containing species including o-phenylenediamine (OPD), 2, 3-diaminopyridine (23DAP), and bis(trifluoromethyl)-1, 2-diaminobenzene (BTFMDAB) were used for functionalizing the GO samples, and the corresponding RGO derivatives (OPD-RGO, 23DAP-RGO, and BTF-RGO) were obtained by thermal annealing. Pyrazine nitrogen was successfully introduced into graphitic framework, as confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra, thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), Raman, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Field-effect transistors (FETs) based on the BTF-RGO exhibited hole-dominated ambipolar field-effect behavior with a Dirac point at a 9 V gate voltage and hole mobilities up to 2.5 times that of RGO. The weak p-type doping effect originated from the strongly electron-withdrawing trifluoromethyl groups. By studying the OPD-RGO and 23DAP-RGO-based FETs, containing pyrazine nitrogen and mixed pyrazine/pyridine nitrogen, respectively, we found that pyrazine nitrogen provided weak n-type doping effects, while pyridine nitrogen exhibited weak p-type doping effects due to its electron-withdrawing ability. Enhanced p-type doping effect was accompanied by the introduction of groups with stronger electron-withdrawing ability into the graphitic framework. Impressively, pyridine nitrogen in the pyrazine nitrogen-doped RGO yielded a weak p-type doped graphene due to the electron-withdrawing effect of the pyridine nitrogen. Nitrogen-doped graphene can be finely tuned from weak n-type to weak p-type doping by adjusting the electron-withdrawing ability of o-aryl diamine compounds. This study demonstrates the effect of nitrogen configuration and its surrounding environment on the electrical properties of RGOs, providing additional possible applications.     

Switching Quantum Interference in Single-Molecule Junctions by Mechanical Tuning

The charge transport through single-molecule electronic devices can be controlled mechanically by changing the molecular geometrical configuration in situ, but the tunable conductance range is typically less than two orders of magnitude. Herein, we proposed a new mechanical tuning strategy to control the charge transport through the single-molecule junctions via switching quantum interference patterns. By designing molecules with multiple anchoring groups, we switched the electron transport between the constructive quantum interference (CQI) pathway and the destructive quantum interference (DQI) pathway, and more than four orders of magnitude conductance variation can be achieved by shifting the electrodes in a range of about 0.6 nm, which is the highest conductance range ever achieved using mechanical tuning.     

基于裂结技术的单分子尺度化学反应研究进展

分子电子学是研究单分子器件的构筑、性质以及功能调控的一门新兴学科。其中,金属/分子/金属结的构筑和表征是现阶段分子电子学的主要研究内容。裂结技术是当前分子电子学研究的主要实验方法,主要包括机械可控裂结技术和扫描隧道显微镜裂结技术。本文对裂结技术进行了介绍,并对近年来利用这些技术,在单分子尺度化学反应的检测和动力学研究,以及将这些技术与溶液环境、静电场、电化学门控等方法相结合,调控单分子器件的电输运性质等方面所取得的进展进行了概述。     

Effect of anchoring groups on single-molecule conductance: comparative study of thiol-, amine-, and carboxylic-acid-terminated molecules

We studied the effect of anchoring groups on the conductance of single molecules using alkanes terminated with dithiol, diamine, and dicarboxylic-acid groups as a model system. We created a large number of molecular junctions mechanically and analyzed the statistical distributions of the conductance values of the molecular junctions. Multiple sets of conductance values were found in each case. The I-V characteristics, temperature independence, and exponential decay of the conductance with the molecular length all indicate tunneling as the conduction mechanism for these molecules. The prefactor of the exponential decay function, which reflects the contact resistance, is highly sensitive to the anchoring group, and the decay constant is weakly dependent on the anchoring group. These observations are attributed to different electronic couplings between the molecules and the electrodes and alignments of the molecular energy levels relative to the Fermi energy level of the electrodes introduced by different anchoring groups. For diamine and dicarboxylic-acid groups, the conductance values are sensitive to pH due to protonation and deprotonation of the anchoring groups. Further insight into the binding strengths of these anchoring groups to gold electrodes is obtained by statistically analyzing the stretching length of molecular junctions.     

Charge transport through single-molecule bilayer-graphene junctions with atomic thickness

The van der Waals interactions (vdW) between π-conjugated molecules offer new opportunities for fabricating heterojunction-based devices and investigating charge transport in heterojunctions with atomic thickness. In this work, we fabricate sandwiched single-molecule bilayer-graphene junctions via vdW interactions and characterize their electrical transport properties by employing the cross-plane break junction (XPBJ) technique. The experimental results show that the cross-plane charge transport through single-molecule junctions is determined by the size and layer number of molecular graphene in these junctions. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the charge transport through molecular graphene in these molecular junctions is sensitive to the angles between the graphene flake and peripheral mesityl groups, and those rotated groups can be used to tune the electrical conductance. This study provides new insight into cross-plane charge transport in atomically thin junctions and highlights the role of through-space interactions in vdW heterojunctions at the molecular scale.

Charge transport through single-molecule bilayer-graphene junctions fabricated by a cross-plane break junction technique can be tuned at the atomic level.     

Not So Innocent After All: Interfacial Chemistry Determines Charge-Transport Efficiency in Single-Molecule Junctions

Most studies in molecular electronics focus on altering the molecular wire backbone to tune the electrical properties of the whole junction. However, it is often overlooked that the chemical structure of the groups anchoring the molecule to the metallic electrodes influences the electronic structure of the whole system and, therefore, its conductance. We synthesised electron-accepting dithienophosphole oxide derivatives and fabricated their single-molecule junctions. We found that the anchor group has a dramatic effect on charge-transport efficiency: in our case, electron-deficient 4-pyridyl contacts suppress conductance, while electron-rich 4-thioanisole termini promote efficient transport. Our calculations show that this is due to minute changes in charge distribution, probed at the electrode interface. Our findings provide a framework for efficient molecular junction design, especially valuable for compounds with strong electron withdrawing/donating backbones.     

Anisotropic Conductivity at the Single‐Molecule Scale

In most junctions built by wiring a single molecule between two electrodes, the electrons flow along only one axis: between the two anchoring groups. However, molecules can be anisotropic, and an orientation‐dependent conductance is expected. Here, we fabricated single‐molecule junctions by using the electrode potential to control the molecular orientation and access individual elements of the conductivity tensor. We measured the conductance in two directions, along the molecular plane as the benzene ring bridges two electrodes using anchoring groups (upright) and orthogonal to the molecular plane with the molecule lying flat on the substrate (planar). The perpendicular (planar) conductance is about 400 times higher than that along the molecular plane (upright). This offers a new method for designing a reversible room‐temperature single‐molecule electromechanical switch that controllably employs the electrode potential to orient the molecule in the junction in either “ON” or “OFF” conductance states.     

单分子电导测量技术及其影响因素

Molecular electronics is an important field for the application of nanotechnologies with an ultimate goal of building functional devices using single molecules or molecular arrays to realize the same functionality as macroscopic devices. To attain this goal, reliable techniques for measuring and manipulating electron transfer processes through single molecules are essential. There are various techniques and many environmental factors influencing single-molecule electronic conductance measurements. In this review, we first provide a detailed introduction and classification of the current well-accepted techniques in this field for measuring single-molecule conductance. All available techniques are summarized into two categories: the fixed junction technique and break junction technique. The break junction technique involves repeatedly forming and breaking molecular junctions by mechanically controlling a pair of electrodes moving into and out of contact in the presence of target molecules. Single-molecule conductance can be determined from the conductance plateaus that appear in typical conductance decay traces when molecules bind two electrodes during their separation process. In contrast, the fixed junction technique is to fix the distance between a pair of electrodes and measure the conductance fluctuations when a single molecule binds the two electrodes stochastically. Both techniques comprise different application methods and have been employed preferentially by different groups. Specific features of both techniques and their intrinsic advantages are compared and summarized in Section 4.     

Planarity recognition of cationic dyes by anionic, crystalline bilayer aggregates

Steric selectivity in terms of molecular planarity of cationic dyes was investigated using anionic bilayer aggregates. Planar cationic dye (para-type stilbazolium) could be incorporated into the hydrophobic region of anionic crystalline bilayer aggregates, whereas structurally related, less planar dyes (ortho-type stilbazolium) could not be incorporated in spite of somewhat higher hydrophobicity resulting from lengthening of the N-alkyl group.     

A core-shell strategy for constructing a single-molecule junction

Understanding the effects of intermolecular interactions on the charge-transport properties of metal/molecule/metal junctions is an important step towards using individual molecules as building blocks for electronic devices. This work reports a systematic electron-transport investigation on a series of "core-shell"-structured oligo(phenylene ethynylene) (Gn-OPE) molecular wires. By using dendrimers of different generations as insulating "shells", the intermolecular π-π interactions between the OPE "cores" can be precisely controlled in single-component monolayers. Three techniques are used to evaluate the electron-transport properties of the Au/Gn-OPE/Au molecular junctions, including crossed-wire junction, scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), and scanning tunneling microscope (STM) break-junction techniques. The STM break-junction measurement reveals that the electron-transport pathways are strongly affected by the size of the side groups. When the side groups are small, electron transport could occur through three pathways, including through single-molecule junctions, double-molecule junctions, and molecular bridges between adjacent molecules formed by aromatic π-π coupling. The dendrimer shells effectively prohibit the π-π coupling effect, but at the same time, very large dendrimer side groups may hinder the formation of Au-S bonds. A first-generation dendrimer acts as an optimal shell that only allows electron transport through the single-molecule junction pathway, and forbids the other undesired pathways. It is demonstrated that the dendrimer-based core-shell strategy allows the single-molecule conductance to be probed in a homogenous monolayer without the influence of intermolecular π-π interactions.