A reversible single-molecule switch based on activated antiaromaticity
Abstract
Single-molecule electronic devices provide researchers with an unprecedented ability to relate novel physical phenomena to molecular chemical structures. Typically, conjugated aromatic molecular backbones are relied upon to create electronic devices, where the aromaticity of the building blocks is used to enhance conductivity. We capitalize on the classical physical organic chemistry concept of Hückel antiaromaticity by demonstrating a single-molecule switch that exhibits low conductance in the neutral state and, upon electrochemical oxidation, reversibly switches to an antiaromatic high-conducting structure. We form single-molecule devices using the scanning tunneling microscope–based break-junction technique and observe an on/off ratio of ~70 for a thiophenylidene derivative that switches to an antiaromatic state with 6-4-6-p electrons. Through supporting nuclear magnetic resonance measurements, we show that the doubly oxidized core has antiaromatic character and we use density functional theory calculations to rationalize the origin of the high-conductance state for the oxidized single-molecule junction. Together, our work demonstrates how the concept of antiaromaticity can be exploited to create single-molecule devices that are highly conducting.
- Authors:
-
- Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
- Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Dept. of Applied Physics
- Fudan Univ., Shanghai (China)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Molecular Foundry
- Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Dept. of Chemistry; Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States). Dept. of Applied Physics
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1432216
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Science Advances
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 3; Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 2375-2548
- Publisher:
- AAAS
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Citation Formats
Yin, Xiaodong, Zang, Yaping, Zhu, Liangliang, Low, Jonathan Z., Liu, Zhen-Fei, Cui, Jing, Neaton, Jeffrey B., Venkataraman, Latha, and Campos, Luis M.. A reversible single-molecule switch based on activated antiaromaticity. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aao2615.
Yin, Xiaodong, Zang, Yaping, Zhu, Liangliang, Low, Jonathan Z., Liu, Zhen-Fei, Cui, Jing, Neaton, Jeffrey B., Venkataraman, Latha, & Campos, Luis M.. A reversible single-molecule switch based on activated antiaromaticity. United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao2615
Yin, Xiaodong, Zang, Yaping, Zhu, Liangliang, Low, Jonathan Z., Liu, Zhen-Fei, Cui, Jing, Neaton, Jeffrey B., Venkataraman, Latha, and Campos, Luis M.. Fri .
"A reversible single-molecule switch based on activated antiaromaticity". United States. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aao2615. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1432216.
@article{osti_1432216,
title = {A reversible single-molecule switch based on activated antiaromaticity},
author = {Yin, Xiaodong and Zang, Yaping and Zhu, Liangliang and Low, Jonathan Z. and Liu, Zhen-Fei and Cui, Jing and Neaton, Jeffrey B. and Venkataraman, Latha and Campos, Luis M.},
abstractNote = {Single-molecule electronic devices provide researchers with an unprecedented ability to relate novel physical phenomena to molecular chemical structures. Typically, conjugated aromatic molecular backbones are relied upon to create electronic devices, where the aromaticity of the building blocks is used to enhance conductivity. We capitalize on the classical physical organic chemistry concept of Hückel antiaromaticity by demonstrating a single-molecule switch that exhibits low conductance in the neutral state and, upon electrochemical oxidation, reversibly switches to an antiaromatic high-conducting structure. We form single-molecule devices using the scanning tunneling microscope–based break-junction technique and observe an on/off ratio of ~70 for a thiophenylidene derivative that switches to an antiaromatic state with 6-4-6-p electrons. Through supporting nuclear magnetic resonance measurements, we show that the doubly oxidized core has antiaromatic character and we use density functional theory calculations to rationalize the origin of the high-conductance state for the oxidized single-molecule junction. Together, our work demonstrates how the concept of antiaromaticity can be exploited to create single-molecule devices that are highly conducting.},
doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aao2615},
journal = {Science Advances},
number = 10,
volume = 3,
place = {United States},
year = {2017},
month = {10}
}
Web of Science
Figures / Tables:

Works referenced in this record:
Thermoelectricity in Molecular Junctions
journal, March 2007
- Reddy, P.; Jang, S.-Y.; Segalman, R. A.
- Science, Vol. 315, Issue 5818, p. 1568-1571
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple
journal, October 1996
- Perdew, John P.; Burke, Kieron; Ernzerhof, Matthias
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 77, Issue 18, p. 3865-3868
Electron Transport in Molecular Wire Junctions
journal, May 2003
- Nitzan, A.
- Science, Vol. 300, Issue 5624
Measurement of Single-Molecule Resistance by Repeated Formation of Molecular Junctions
journal, August 2003
- Xu, B.
- Science, Vol. 301, Issue 5637
Tunable Charge Transport in Single-Molecule Junctions via Electrolytic Gating
journal, February 2014
- Capozzi, Brian; Chen, Qishui; Darancet, Pierre
- Nano Letters, Vol. 14, Issue 3
Mechanically controlled binary conductance switching of a single-molecule junction
journal, March 2009
- Quek, Su Ying; Kamenetska, Maria; Steigerwald, Michael L.
- Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 4, Issue 4
Twisted but Conjugated: Building Blocks for Low Bandgap Polymers
journal, March 2014
- Chiu, Chien-Yang; Wang, Hengbin; Brunetti, Fulvio G.
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 53, Issue 15
Enhancing thermoelectric properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes using halide compounds at room temperature and above.
text, January 2021
- Kumanek, Bogumiła; Stando, Grzegorz; Stando, Paweł
- Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Single-molecule diodes with high rectification ratios through environmental control
journal, May 2015
- Capozzi, Brian; Xia, Jianlong; Adak, Olgun
- Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 10, Issue 6
Dependence of single-molecule junction conductance on molecular conformation
journal, August 2006
- Venkataraman, Latha; Klare, Jennifer E.; Nuckolls, Colin
- Nature, Vol. 442, Issue 7105
Antiaromaticity
journal, December 1973
- Breslow, Ronald
- Accounts of Chemical Research, Vol. 6, Issue 12
Molecular rectifiers
journal, November 1974
- Aviram, Arieh; Ratner, Mark A.
- Chemical Physics Letters, Vol. 29, Issue 2
Current-Induced Hydrogen Tautomerization and Conductance Switching of Naphthalocyanine Molecules
journal, August 2007
- Liljeroth, Peter; Repp, Jascha; Meyer, Gerhard
- Science, Vol. 317, Issue 5842, p. 1203-1206
Amine−Gold Linked Single-Molecule Circuits: Experiment and Theory
journal, November 2007
- Quek, Su Ying; Venkataraman, Latha; Choi, Hyoung Joon
- Nano Letters, Vol. 7, Issue 11
Density-functional method for nonequilibrium electron transport
journal, March 2002
- Brandbyge, Mads; Mozos, José-Luis; Ordejón, Pablo
- Physical Review B, Vol. 65, Issue 16, Article No. 165401
Frustrated Rotations in Single-Molecule Junctions
journal, August 2009
- Park, Young S.; Widawsky, Jonathan R.; Kamenetska, Maria
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 131, Issue 31
Electron transport in molecular junctions
journal, December 2006
- Tao, N. J.
- Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 1, Issue 3
Coulomb blockade and the Kondo effect in single-atom transistors
journal, June 2002
- Park, Jiwoong; Pasupathy, Abhay N.; Goldsmith, Jonas I.
- Nature, Vol. 417, Issue 6890
Kondo resonance in a single-molecule transistor
journal, June 2002
- Liang, Wenjie; Shores, Matthew P.; Bockrath, Marc
- Nature, Vol. 417, Issue 6890
Nucleus-Independent Chemical Shifts (NICS) as an Aromaticity Criterion
journal, September 2005
- Chen, Zhongfang; Wannere, Chaitanya S.; Corminboeuf, Clémence
- Chemical Reviews, Vol. 105, Issue 10
Renormalization of Molecular Electronic Levels at Metal-Molecule Interfaces
journal, November 2006
- Neaton, J. B.; Hybertsen, Mark S.; Louie, Steven G.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 97, Issue 21
Chemical principles of single-molecule electronics
journal, February 2016
- Su, Timothy A.; Neupane, Madhav; Steigerwald, Michael L.
- Nature Reviews Materials, Vol. 1, Issue 3
Electrochemical Single-Molecule Transistors with Optimized Gate Coupling
journal, November 2015
- Osorio, Henrry M.; Catarelli, Samantha; Cea, Pilar
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 137, Issue 45
Twisted but Conjugated: Building Blocks for Low Bandgap Polymers
journal, March 2014
- Chiu, Chien-Yang; Wang, Hengbin; Brunetti, Fulvio G.
- Angewandte Chemie, Vol. 126, Issue 15
Quasiparticle Spectra from a Nonempirical Optimally Tuned Range-Separated Hybrid Density Functional
journal, November 2012
- Refaely-Abramson, Sivan; Sharifzadeh, Sahar; Govind, Niranjan
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 22
Covalently bonded single-molecule junctions with stable and reversible photoswitched conductivity
journal, June 2016
- Jia, C.; Migliore, A.; Xin, N.
- Science, Vol. 352, Issue 6292
A Molecular Switch Based on Potential-Induced Changes of Oxidation State
journal, March 2005
- Chen, Fan; He, Jin; Nuckolls, Colin
- Nano Letters, Vol. 5, Issue 3
The Electrical Properties of Biphenylenes
journal, September 2010
- Schneebeli, Severin; Kamenetska, Maria; Foss, Frank
- Organic Letters, Vol. 12, Issue 18
Aromatic and antiaromatic ring currents in a molecular nanoring
journal, December 2016
- Peeks, Martin D.; Claridge, Timothy D. W.; Anderson, Harry L.
- Nature, Vol. 541, Issue 7636
Summation of Nucleus Independent Chemical Shifts as a Measure of Aromaticity
journal, November 2007
- Mills, Nancy S.; Llagostera, Kathleen B.
- The Journal of Organic Chemistry, Vol. 72, Issue 24
The SIESTA method for ab initio order- N materials simulation
journal, March 2002
- Soler, José M.; Artacho, Emilio; Gale, Julian D.
- Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 14, Issue 11
Strain and Hückel Aromaticity: Driving Forces for a Promising New Generation of Electron Acceptors in Organic Electronics
journal, January 2010
- Brunetti, F. â G.; Gong, X.; Tong, M.
- Angewandte Chemie, Vol. 122, Issue 3
Nucleus-Independent Chemical Shifts (NICS) as an Aromaticity Criterion
journal, January 2006
- Chen, Zhongfang; Wannere, Chaitanya S.; Corminboeuf, Clemence
- ChemInform, Vol. 37, Issue 4
CHEMISTRY: Enhanced: Whence Molecular Electronics?
journal, December 2004
- Flood, A. H.
- Science, Vol. 306, Issue 5704
Preparation and characterization of STM tips for electrochemical studies
journal, October 1989
- Nagahara, L. A.; Thundat, T.; Lindsay, S. M.
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 60, Issue 10
Biphenylene
journal, May 1941
- Lothrop, Warren C.
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 63, Issue 5
Aromaticity Decreases Single-Molecule Junction Conductance.
journal, January 2014
- Chen, Wenbo; Li, Haixing; Widawsky, Jonathan R.
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 136, Issue 3
Strain and Hückel Aromaticity: Driving Forces for a Promising New Generation of Electron Acceptors in Organic Electronics
journal, December 2009
- Brunetti, F. G.; Gong, X.; Tong, M.
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 49, Issue 3
Dications of Tetrabenzofulvalenes. Paratropicity and .sigma. Donation in Perpendicular Antiaromatic Systems
journal, December 1994
- Malandra, James L.; Mills, Nancy S.; Kadlecek, Daniel E.
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 116, Issue 25
Reliable Energy Level Alignment at Physisorbed Molecule–Metal Interfaces from Density Functional Theory
journal, March 2015
- Egger, David A.; Liu, Zhen-Fei; Neaton, Jeffrey B.
- Nano Letters, Vol. 15, Issue 4
Mapping the Transmission Functions of Single-Molecule Junctions
journal, May 2016
- Capozzi, Brian; Low, Jonathan Z.; Xia, Jianlong
- Nano Letters, Vol. 16, Issue 6
Formation and Evolution of Single-Molecule Junctions
journal, March 2009
- Kamenetska, M.; Koentopp, M.; Whalley, A. C.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 12
Formation and Evolution of Single Molecule Junctions
text, January 2009
- Kamenetska, M.; Koentopp, M.; Whalley, A. C.
- arXiv
Quasiparticle spectra from a non-empirical optimally-tuned range-separated hybrid density functional
text, January 2012
- Refaely-Abramson, Sivan; Sharifzadeh, Sahar; Govind, Niranjan
- arXiv
Density functional method for nonequilibrium electron transport
text, January 2001
- Brandbyge, Mads; Mozos, Jose-Luis; Ordejon, Pablo
- arXiv
Dependence of Single Molecule Junction Conductance on Molecular Conformation
text, January 2006
- Venkataraman, Latha; Klare, Jennifer E.; Nuckolls, Colin
- arXiv
Molecular rectifiers
journal, November 1974
- Aviram, Arieh; Ratner, Mark A.
- Chemical Physics Letters, Vol. 29, Issue 2
Nucleus-Independent Chemical Shifts (NICS) as an Aromaticity Criterion
journal, September 2005
- Chen, Zhongfang; Wannere, Chaitanya S.; Corminboeuf, Clémence
- Chemical Reviews, Vol. 105, Issue 10
Aromaticity Decreases Single-Molecule Junction Conductance.
journal, January 2014
- Chen, Wenbo; Li, Haixing; Widawsky, Jonathan R.
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 136, Issue 3
Frustrated Rotations in Single-Molecule Junctions
journal, August 2009
- Park, Young S.; Widawsky, Jonathan R.; Kamenetska, Maria
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 131, Issue 31
Electrochemical Single-Molecule Transistors with Optimized Gate Coupling
journal, November 2015
- Osorio, Henrry M.; Catarelli, Samantha; Cea, Pilar
- Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol. 137, Issue 45
A Molecular Switch Based on Potential-Induced Changes of Oxidation State
journal, March 2005
- Chen, Fan; He, Jin; Nuckolls, Colin
- Nano Letters, Vol. 5, Issue 3
Amine−Gold Linked Single-Molecule Circuits: Experiment and Theory
journal, November 2007
- Quek, Su Ying; Venkataraman, Latha; Choi, Hyoung Joon
- Nano Letters, Vol. 7, Issue 11
Tunable Charge Transport in Single-Molecule Junctions via Electrolytic Gating
journal, February 2014
- Capozzi, Brian; Chen, Qishui; Darancet, Pierre
- Nano Letters, Vol. 14, Issue 3
Kondo resonance in a single-molecule transistor
journal, June 2002
- Liang, Wenjie; Shores, Matthew P.; Bockrath, Marc
- Nature, Vol. 417, Issue 6890
Coulomb blockade and the Kondo effect in single-atom transistors
journal, June 2002
- Park, Jiwoong; Pasupathy, Abhay N.; Goldsmith, Jonas I.
- Nature, Vol. 417, Issue 6890
Dependence of single-molecule junction conductance on molecular conformation
journal, August 2006
- Venkataraman, Latha; Klare, Jennifer E.; Nuckolls, Colin
- Nature, Vol. 442, Issue 7105
Aromatic and antiaromatic ring currents in a molecular nanoring
journal, December 2016
- Peeks, Martin D.; Claridge, Timothy D. W.; Anderson, Harry L.
- Nature, Vol. 541, Issue 7636
Electron transport in molecular junctions
journal, December 2006
- Tao, N. J.
- Nature Nanotechnology, Vol. 1, Issue 3
Preparation and characterization of STM tips for electrochemical studies
journal, October 1989
- Nagahara, L. A.; Thundat, T.; Lindsay, S. M.
- Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 60, Issue 10
One-Way Optoelectronic Switching of Photochromic Molecules on Gold
journal, November 2003
- Dulić, Diana; van der Molen, S. J.; Kudernac, T.
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 91, Issue 20
Electron Transport in Molecular Wire Junctions
journal, May 2003
- Nitzan, A.
- Science, Vol. 300, Issue 5624
Measurement of Single-Molecule Resistance by Repeated Formation of Molecular Junctions
journal, August 2003
- Xu, B.
- Science, Vol. 301, Issue 5637
Thermoelectricity in Molecular Junctions
journal, March 2007
- Reddy, P.; Jang, S.-Y.; Segalman, R. A.
- Science, Vol. 315, Issue 5818, p. 1568-1571
Current-Induced Hydrogen Tautomerization and Conductance Switching of Naphthalocyanine Molecules
journal, August 2007
- Liljeroth, Peter; Repp, Jascha; Meyer, Gerhard
- Science, Vol. 317, Issue 5842, p. 1203-1206
Covalently bonded single-molecule junctions with stable and reversible photoswitched conductivity
journal, June 2016
- Jia, C.; Migliore, A.; Xin, N.
- Science, Vol. 352, Issue 6292
Formation and Evolution of Single Molecule Junctions
text, January 2009
- Kamenetska, M.; Koentopp, M.; Whalley, A. C.
- arXiv
Works referencing / citing this record:
Quantum interference mediated vertical molecular tunneling transistors
journal, October 2018
- Jia, Chuancheng; Famili, Marjan; Carlotti, Marco
- Science Advances, Vol. 4, Issue 10
A sub 20 nm metal-conjugated molecule junction acting as a nitrogen dioxide sensor
journal, January 2019
- Wani, Ishtiaq H.; Jafri, S. Hassan M.; Warna, John
- Nanoscale, Vol. 11, Issue 14
Non-aromatic annulene-based aggregation-induced emission system via aromaticity reversal process
journal, July 2019
- Zhao, Zheng; Zheng, Xiaoyan; Du, Lili
- Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1
Dinaphthobenzo[1,2:4,5]dicyclobutadiene: Antiaromatic and Orthogonally Tunable Electronics and Packing
journal, January 2019
- Jin, Zexin; Yao, Ze-Fan; Barker, Kayla P.
- Angewandte Chemie, Vol. 131, Issue 7
Side-group chemical gating via reversible optical and electric control in a single molecule transistor
journal, March 2019
- Meng, Linan; Xin, Na; Hu, Chen
- Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1
Electron transport behavior of quinoidal heteroacene-based junctions: effective electron-transport pathways and quantum interference.
text, January 2018
- Cheng, Na; Chen, Feng; Durkan, Colm
- Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
Isomeric effects tuning the electron transport in carotenoid derivatives: from ohmic to rectifier behavior
journal, August 2018
- Guedes, A. M.; Corrêa, S. M.; Ferreira, D. F. S.
- Journal of Molecular Modeling, Vol. 24, Issue 9
Two-electron transfer stabilized by excited-state aromatization
journal, November 2019
- Kim, Jinseok; Oh, Juwon; Park, Seongchul
- Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1
Direct Au–C contacts based on biphenylene for single molecule circuits
journal, January 2018
- Arasu, Narendra P.; Vázquez, Héctor
- Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Vol. 20, Issue 15
A theoretical study on a series of polycyclic conjugated hydrocarbons—dinaphthobenzo[1,2:4,5]dicyclobutadienes with tunable charge transport properties by controlling [ N ]phenylenes and (anti)aromaticity
journal, January 2019
- Yin, Hang; Zheng, Daoyuan; Qiao, Yan
- Journal of Materials Chemistry C, Vol. 7, Issue 22
Multicenter-Bond-Based Quantum Interference in Charge Transport Through Single-Molecule Carborane Junctions
journal, June 2019
- Tang, Chun; Chen, Lijue; Zhang, Longyi
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 58, Issue 31
Versatile electrochemical approaches towards the fabrication of molecular electronic devices
journal, January 2020
- Sachan, Pradeep; Mondal, Prakash Chandra
- The Analyst, Vol. 145, Issue 5
Exploring antiaromaticity in single-molecule junctions formed from biphenylene derivatives
journal, January 2019
- Gantenbein, Markus; Li, Xiaohui; Sangtarash, Sara
- Nanoscale, Vol. 11, Issue 43
Dinaphthobenzo[1,2:4,5]dicyclobutadiene: Antiaromatic and Orthogonally Tunable Electronics and Packing
journal, January 2019
- Jin, Zexin; Yao, Ze-Fan; Barker, Kayla P.
- Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Vol. 58, Issue 7
Transition from stochastic events to deterministic ensemble average in electron transfer reactions revealed by single-molecule conductance measurement
journal, February 2019
- Li, Yueqi; Wang, Hui; Wang, Zixiao
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 116, Issue 9
Electrical and spin switches in single‐molecule junctions
journal, December 2019
- Ke, Guojun; Duan, Chunhui; Huang, Fei
- InfoMat, Vol. 2, Issue 1
Multicenter‐Bond‐Based Quantum Interference in Charge Transport Through Single‐Molecule Carborane Junctions
journal, June 2019
- Tang, Chun; Chen, Lijue; Zhang, Longyi
- Angewandte Chemie, Vol. 131, Issue 31
Electronegativity, symmetry, and bond strength intrinsically control charge transport through five-membered single-molecule junction
journal, October 2019
- Mijbil, Zainelabideen Y.
- The European Physical Journal B, Vol. 92, Issue 10
Electron transport behavior of quinoidal heteroacene-based junctions: effective electron-transport pathways and quantum interference
journal, January 2018
- Cheng, Na; Chen, Feng; Durkan, Colm
- Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Vol. 20, Issue 45
Spin Logic Gates Operated by Protonation and Magnetism in Molecular Combinational Circuits
journal, April 2019
- Zhao, Wenkai; Zou, Dongqing; Sun, Zhaopeng
- Advanced Theory and Simulations
Concepts in the design and engineering of single-molecule electronic devices
journal, February 2019
- Xin, Na; Guan, Jianxin; Zhou, Chenguang
- Nature Reviews Physics, Vol. 1, Issue 3
Non-aromatic annulene-based aggregation-induced emission system via aromaticity reversal process
journal, July 2019
- Zhao, Zheng; Zheng, Xiaoyan; Du, Lili
- Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1
Figures / Tables found in this record: