Postdoctoral Researcher Hongliang Chen‘s full paper entitled Single-molecule charge transport through positively charged electrostatic anchors has been selected to appear as a Supplementary Cover in Issue 7 of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The paper reports an anchoring strategy for use in molecular electronics, called the electrostatic anchor, formed through efficient Coulombic interactions between gold electrodes and positively charged pyridinium terminal units. A binary switching mechanism in dicationic viologen molecular junctions is observed, demonstrating electron injection-induced redox switching in single-molecule junctions. This anchoring strategy and redox-switching mechanism could constitute the basis for a new class of redox-activated single-molecule switches.
A great piece of science, Hongliang. Congratulations!
Pictured below – Hongliang’s cover image for the February issue of JACS:
