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Highly conductive self-assembled nanoribbons of coordination polymers

Nature Nanotechnology volume 5, pages 110–115 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Organic molecules can self-assemble into well-ordered structures, but the conductance of these structures is limited1,2,3, which is a disadvantage for applications in molecular electronics. Conductivity can be improved by using coordination polymers—in which metal centres are incorporated into a molecular backbone—and such structures have been used as molecular wires by self-assembling them into ordered films on metal surfaces4. Here, we report electrically conductive nanoribbons of the coordination polymer [Pt2I(S2CCH3)4]n self-assembled on an insulating substrate by direct sublimation of polymer crystals. Conductance atomic force microscopy is used to probe the electrical characteristics of a few polymer chains (∼10) within the nanoribbons. The observed currents exceed those previously sustained in organic and metal–organic molecules assembled on surfaces by several orders of magnitude and over much longer distances. These results, and the results of theoretical calculations based on density functional theory, confirm coordination polymers as candidate materials for applications in molecular electronics.

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Figure 1: Self-assembled nanoribbons of MMX polymers.
Figure 2: Electrical characterization of MMX nanoribbons using conductance AFM.
Figure 3: Resistance versus length measurements of MMX nanoribbons.
Figure 4: Calculated atomic configuration and electronic structure of an infinite MMX chain on a Au(111) surface.
Figure 5: Dynamic simulation of an MMX chain.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Projects MAT2007-66476-C01/02), CAM (S-0505/MAT/0303), the European Union (FP6-029192 DNA-NANODEVICES and ERA under Chemistry Program CTQ2006-027185-E) and the regional Emilia Romagna net-lab PROMINER. The authors are indebted to A. Guijarro and M. Moreno-Moreno for their help in the experiments. Discussions with J.M. Soler and D. Porath are also acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, 28049, Spain

    Lorena Welte & Felix Zamora

  2. National Center on nanoStructures and bioSystems at Surfaces (S3) of INFM-CNR, Modena, I-41100, Italy

    Arrigo Calzolari & Rosa Di Felice

  3. Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, 28049, Spain

    Julio Gómez-Herrero

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  1. Lorena Welte
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  2. Arrigo Calzolari
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  3. Rosa Di Felice
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  4. Felix Zamora
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Contributions

L.W. conducted the experiments. A.C. planned and performed the DFT calculations. R.D.F. designed the theoretical work and prepared the manuscript. F.Z. and J.G.-H. designed the experiments, analysed the data and prepared the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Felix Zamora or Julio Gómez-Herrero.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Welte, L., Calzolari, A., Di Felice, R. et al. Highly conductive self-assembled nanoribbons of coordination polymers. Nature Nanotech 5, 110–115 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.354

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