Beyond π–π stacked benzene rings, non-bonded conducting channels are also confirmed in non-strict face-to-face aligned thiophenes or phenyl-thiophene in BDT derivatives.

Revealing the electronic structure of organic emitting molecules is instructive for tuning electron-hole balance, one of the key factors in regulating the organic light emitting diodes (OLED) performance. Herein, we...

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Creating through-space electron transport (ET) channels in the molecular backbone has been rarely explored in molecular electronics. Here, we demonstrated that through-space channels could be readily created by substituting the H atom of the central benzene in a starting molecule 1,4-dithiophene-benzen (DT-B) with F, which forms an interaction with the thiophene S and gives rise to the F−S type noncovalent conformational locks (NCLs). Single-molecule conductance investigation showed the molecular conductance was increasingly larger with more F substituents. A theoretical study revealed that NCLs play a major role in enhancing the ET rates, which not only led to better π-conjugation but also created additional through-space transport channels.

One important prerequisite for the fabrication of molecular functional device strongly relies on the understanding the conducting behaviors of the metal-molecule-metal junction that can respond to an external stimulus. The model Lewis basic molecule 4,4'-(pyridine-3,5-diyl)dibenzonitrile (DBP), which can react with Lewis acid and protic acid, was synthesized. Then, the molecular conducting behavior of DBP, DBP-B(C 6 F 5 ) 3 , and DBP-TfOH (DBP-B(C 6 F 5 ) 3 , and DBP-TfOH were produced by Lewis acid and protonic acid treatment of DBP) was researched and compared. Given that their identical physical paths for DBP, DBP-B(C 6 F 5 ) 3 , and DBP-TfOH to sustain charge transport, our results indicate that modifying the molecular electronic structure, even not directly changing the conductive physical backbone, can tune the charge transporting ability by nearly one order of magnitude. Furthermore, the addition of another Lewis base triethylamine (of stronger alkaline than DBP), to Lewis acid-base pair reverts the electrical properties back to that of a single DBP junction, that is constructive to propose a useful but simple strategy for the design and construction of reversible and controllable molecular device based on pyridine derived molecule.