# Graphene as a Promising Electrode for Low-Current Attenuation in Nonsymmetric Molecular Junctions

* Corresponding author
5 GMT - Groupe Modélisation et Théorie
SPEC - UMR3680 - Service de physique de l'état condensé, IRAMIS - Institut Rayonnement Matière de Saclay
Abstract : We have measured the single-molecule conductance of 1,$\it n$-alkanedithiol molecular bridges ($\it n$ = 4, 6, 8, 10, 12) on a graphene substrate using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)-formed electrical junctions. The conductance values of this homologous series ranged from 2.3 nS ($\it n$= 12) to 53 nS ($\it n$= 4), with a decay constant β$_n$ of 0.40 per methylene (−CH$_2$) group. This result is explained by a combination of density functional theory (DFT) and Keldysh− Green function calculations. The obtained decay, which is much lower than the one obtained for symmetric gold junctions, is related to the weak coupling at the molecule−graphene interface and the electronic structure of graphene. As a consequence, we show that using graphene nonsymmetric junctions and appropriate anchoring groups may lead to a much-lower decay constant and more-conductive molecular junctions at longer lengths.
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Journal articles
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https://hal-cea.archives-ouvertes.fr/cea-01490890
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Submitted on : Thursday, March 16, 2017 - 10:36:16 AM
Last modification on : Friday, August 5, 2022 - 3:03:36 PM

### Citation

Qian Zhang, Li Liu, Shuhui Tao, Congyi Wang, Cezhou Zhao, et al.. Graphene as a Promising Electrode for Low-Current Attenuation in Nonsymmetric Molecular Junctions. Nano Letters, American Chemical Society, 2016, 16, pp.6534 - 6540. ⟨10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b03180⟩. ⟨cea-01490890⟩

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