Probing Ultrastrong Through‐Space Electronic Coupling in Donor‐Acceptor Systems at the Single‐Molecule Level

Through-space donor-acceptor (TSDA) interactions have recently emerged as a new paradigm for charge transfer and transport in organic semiconductors. However, the intrinsic D-A coupling strength and charge transport properties at the molecular level remain unexplored in comparison to established through-bond channels. Here, we employ a variety of single-molecule techniques to directly probe TSDA charge transport characteristics in a series of strategically designed face-to-face D-A systems, revealing that optimized spatial proximity and electronic complementarity yield conductance values up to ∼0.19 G<sub>0</sub>, comparable to the best-performing through-bond molecular wires. Flicker noise analysis, current-voltage characterization, and mechanical stretching measurements confirm robust electronic and mechanical coupling, while theoretical calculations and photophysical studies identify through-space transmission as the prevailing mechanism. These findings establish non-covalent TSDA coupling as an efficient charge-transport channel and provide new molecular-level insight for the design of D-A systems in organic electronics and optoelectronics.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Science
Published
2026-01-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202521879
Primary Topic
Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Probing Ultrastrong Through‐Space Electronic Coupling in Donor‐Acceptor Systems at the Single‐Molecule Level

J. Ulstrup, Jiazheng Diao, Florian Auras, J. Joshua Yang et al.
Advanced Science
Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures
article

Probing Ultrastrong Through‐Space Electronic Coupling in Donor‐Acceptor Systems at the Single‐Molecule Level

J. Ulstrup, Jiazheng Diao, Florian Auras, J. Joshua Yang, Yueqi Li, Chengyang Zhang, Jinghong Li, Linsong Cui, Xin Wang, Dan Yang, Qiang Fu
article en

Abstract

Through-space donor-acceptor (TSDA) interactions have recently emerged as a new paradigm for charge transfer and transport in organic semiconductors. However, the intrinsic D-A coupling strength and charge transport properties at the molecular level remain unexplored in comparison to established through-bond channels. Here, we employ a variety of single-molecule techniques to directly probe TSDA charge transport characteristics in a series of strategically designed face-to-face D-A systems, revealing that optimized spatial proximity and electronic complementarity yield conductance values up to ∼0.19 G<sub>0</sub>, comparable to the best-performing through-bond molecular wires. Flicker noise analysis, current-voltage characterization, and mechanical stretching measurements confirm robust electronic and mechanical coupling, while theoretical calculations and photophysical studies identify through-space transmission as the prevailing mechanism. These findings establish non-covalent TSDA coupling as an efficient charge-transport channel and provide new molecular-level insight for the design of D-A systems in organic electronics and optoelectronics.

Advanced ScienceVol. 13(14)
University of Science and Technology of China (CN), Bioanalytica (Switzerland) (CH), Hefei National Center for Physical Sciences at Nanoscale (CN), Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Dresden – University of Applied Sciences (DE), Technische Universität Dresden (DE), Technical University of Denmark (DK), Tsinghua University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, University of Science and Technology of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China
Openalex Percentile: Top 98%
Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures
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