article · Physical Review Letters · 2009

Single-Molecule Solvation-Shell Sensing

Edmund Leary, Horst Höbenreich, Simon J. Higgins, Harm van Zalinge, Wolfgang Haiss, Richard J. Nichols, Christopher Martin Finch, Iain Grace, Colin J. Lambert, R. McGrath, J. A. Smerdon

Cited by 93Abstract and details only

Abstract

We present a new route to single-molecule sensing via solvation shells surrounding a current-carrying backbone molecule. As an example, we show that the presence of a water solvation shell "gates" the conductance of a family of oligothiophene-containing molecular wires, and that the longer the oligothiophene, the larger is the effect. For the longest example studied, the molecular conductance is over 2 orders of magnitude larger in the presence of a shell comprising just 10 water molecules. A first principles theoretical investigation of electron transport through the molecules, using the nonequilibrium Green's function method, shows that water molecules interact directly with the thiophene rings, significantly shifting transport resonances and greatly increasing the conductance. This reversible effect is confirmed experimentally through conductance measurements performed in the presence of moist air and dry argon.

Cite this paper

APA 7

Leary, E., Höbenreich, H., Higgins, S. J., van Zalinge, H., Haiss, W., Nichols, R. J., Finch, C. M., Grace, I., Lambert, C. J., McGrath, R., & Smerdon, J. A. (2009). Single-Molecule Solvation-Shell Sensing. Physical Review Letters, 102(8), 086801. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.102.086801

MLA 9

Leary, Edmund, et al. “Single-Molecule Solvation-Shell Sensing.” Physical Review Letters, vol. 102, no. 8, 2009, p. 086801, https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.102.086801.

Chicago

Leary, Edmund, Horst Höbenreich, Simon J. Higgins, Harm van Zalinge, Wolfgang Haiss, Richard J. Nichols, Christopher Martin Finch, et al. 2009. “Single-Molecule Solvation-Shell Sensing.” Physical Review Letters 102 (8): 086801. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.102.086801.

Harvard

Leary, E. et al. (2009) ‘Single-Molecule Solvation-Shell Sensing’, Physical Review Letters, 102(8), p. 086801. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.102.086801.

BibTeX

@article{leary2009single,
  title = {{Single-Molecule Solvation-Shell Sensing}},
  author = {Leary, Edmund and Höbenreich, Horst and Higgins, Simon J. and van Zalinge, Harm and Haiss, Wolfgang and Nichols, Richard J. and Finch, Christopher Martin and Grace, Iain and Lambert, Colin J. and McGrath, R. and Smerdon, J. A.},
  journal = {Physical Review Letters},
  volume = {102},
  number = {8},
  pages = {086801},
  year = {2009},
  doi = {10.1103/physrevlett.102.086801}
}

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