Atomically precise construction of uniform single-molecule junctions for molecular electronics
Atomically precise construction of ultra-small electronic devices meets the urgent need for further device miniaturisation and enables numerous electronic applications. In particular, single-molecule junctions are attractive because they serve as platforms for studying fundamental scientific laws at the single-molecule level and can be used to build functional devices. Here, we present a robust methodology using anisotropic hydrogen plasma etching of graphene and in situ Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction to construct, with atomic precision, uniform covalently bonded graphene-molecule-graphene (GMG) single-molecule junctions with clear zigzag graphene edges. Applying the methodology to an azulene-type molecule, stable GMG single-molecule junctions are constructed with high yield (~82%) and high uniformity (~1.56% conductance variance over 60 devices). The reliability of the platform is shown via real-time and direct electrical monitoring of the three-level conductance fluctuation of an individual azulene molecule. This work demonstrates a universal single-molecule platform that offers countless opportunities to reveal intrinsic molecular properties and build high-performance functional molecular nanocircuits.
Authors
- Jie Cheng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8415-4071)
- Chuancheng Jia (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1513-8497)
- Agostino Migliore (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7780-2296)
- Zhiqing Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2017-6583)
- Chunyan Gao
- Jie Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2268-7926)
- Jihan Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8069-0356)
- Xike Gao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2740-5529)
- Xuefeng Guo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5723-8528)
- Yanfeng Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1319-3270)
- Baoyi Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7613-5708)
- Chen Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9820-0833)
- Mingyao Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0930-3414)
- Zezhou Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-4059-4889)
- Jinying Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1445-9667)
- Weilin Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8632-6818)
- Cong Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2238-3711)
- Bing Yin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3809-704X)
- Xu Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3615-3063)
- Xinmiao Xie
Institutions
- University of Padua (IT)
- Peking University (CN)
- Nankai University (CN)
- Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (CN)
- Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (CN)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-08-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-63113-x
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.73